Homes proposed for Chippy hospital site
The former War Memorial Hospital in Chipping Norton
Plans to build 14 homes on the site of the historic War Memorial hospital in Chipping Norton have been submitted to West Oxfordshire Council.
The proposed development at Spring Lane has been submitted by London-based firm St Charles Homes.
It would see the majority of existing buildings demolished and replaced with five three-bedroom family homes and nine four-bedroom family homes, each with its own garden. There would also be 31 car parking spaces.
The central Victorian villa which formed the core of the former hospital would remain intact at the heart of the complex and would be converted into two of the homes.
The hospital buildings have been disused since 2011 when the hospital moved to its present site on the London Road. David Billingham of Roberts Limbrick Architects, which designed the homes, said: “It’s a great little scheme, extremely focussed on the old hospital building. We’ll retain that and really use that to hang the rest of the scheme around it. And it’s not an insular site, it really integrates well with the rest of the the town.”
Residents and councillors had previously called for the site to be used for services to benefit the community but town mayor Martin Jarratt said the town council was now “resigned” to accepting homes would be built there.
However, Mr Jarratt added the town council registered its opposition to the design of the development at a meeting last Monday evening.
“It’s a very prominent feature as you come into town so we want to make sure the design is right,” he said.
“The design was higher than they originally said it would be and there were some other recommendations made by the district council which had not been adhered to,” he added.
The Victorian villa was originally a private house called Hill Lodge and was built during the third quarter of the nineteenth century by a Mr Ward, who was the proprietor of a well-known team of carriers in the town.
The area where the hospital now stands was known for many years as Ward’s Corner.
After Mr Ward’s death the house and the surrounding site was run as a Red Cross hospital during the First World War by Mrs Daly of Over Norton Park. It was opened as a hospital for the general public in 1920 and as a war memorial and run as a cottage hospital, administered by an executive committee and supported by voluntary contributions.
Later the hospital came under the control of the NHS when it was formed in 1948.
After the transfer of the hospital to the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust in 2006, the decision was taken to create a new, purpose-built hospital on London Road.
Mr Jarratt confirmed concern still remains in the town about the future of other disused sites including the former ambulance station, the historic Chestnuts building and the former Castle View care home, all of which are currently owned by Oxfordshire County Council and lie empty along Spring Street and the Over Norton Road.
The housing application is expected to be determined by the end of April.
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Saturday 25 May 2013
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