In May 1986 there had been a proposal from the Regional Health Authority (RHA) and District Health Authority (DHA) for a twin-site option with a £46 mn. second hospital with 800 beds at Hellesdon (a site already owned by the Health Authority and a few miles to the north-west of Norwich) replacing the West Norwich hospital but complementing St Stephen's (Greenaway et al 2007, 721). But in October 1986 a group of consultants at the hospital opposed this and proposed instead the construction of a new hospital at Colney Lane on the western outskirts of, and about three miles from the centre of Norwich (NNUH website accessed in January 2009). The site proposed was a 63 acre greenfield site, close to the Norwich Research Park and the University of East Anglia and also close to the line of a proposed southern bypass (although in the event a direct access from this was refused by the Highways Agency) (see the Norwich Area Transport.org website)
This was not the first time that a new hospital had been proposed for a site close to the University. In 1967 the then East Anglian Regional Hospital Board had proposed that a new district general hospital for Norwich be located near the University of East Anglia. However when Cambridge University was granted permission to establish a medical school, the Norfolk and Norwich case for one weakened (NNUH website, accessed in January 2009).
However, in July 1979, the Norwich District Consultants Staff Committee identified a site near the University as "the only acceptable site" for a new hospital (Eastern Daily Press, February 10, 2005, 8) but then, in 1985, when the then Norwich Health Authority shortlisted three sites for a new district general hospital for Norwich, the site near the University was not among them (NNUH website). Nevertheless, by the late 1980s, the hospital consultants were getting support for the near-University site from the University Vice-Chancellor, from the chairs of the RHA and the DHA and Ralph Howell, an influential local MP. The site was also just outside the boundaries of the City Council, falling just within the planning territory of the South Norfolk District Council (SNDC) which was reported as seeing the new hospital as prestigious (Greenaway et al 2007, 722)37.
In early 1987, the East Anglian RHA backed the Colney site near the University, dropping the other main site (Hellesdon) as an option (Eastern Evening News, 24 April 1997 and NNUH website) and later in 1987 an application was made to build a second hospital with 816 beds on the Colney Lane site. This led to a planning enquiry in April 1988 which concluded that a second DGH could be built on the Colney Lane site subject to more detailed planning permission (NNHCT 1996, 20). In December 1988, the Environment Secretary, Nicholas Ridley, backed the Colney proposals. As a result, in the following year (1989), the East Anglian Health Authority purchased the 63 acre site at Colney Lane having previously secured an option to purchase (NNHCT 1996, 21). The land was reported to be sold to the East Anglian Health Authority by Martin Kemp of Colney Developments and the building of the hospital was followed - after a spate of planning applications y a link road through to the A11/A47 interchange and then, by the building of a large housing development alongside the link road (see Box A1.1). The latter must have been highly profitable for the owners of the land.
Box A1.1 The development of the land close to, and south of the NNUH The Highway Agency has refused to allow a link from the NNUH directly to the southern bypass - the A47 road which bypasses Norwich to the west and to the south and which then leads on to Great Yarmouth. This meant that road access to the NNUH was inadequate and in September 2004, planning permission was given for a link road from the hospital at Colney through to the A11 close to the interchange with the A47. The link road was opened by the Chair of Norfolk County Council in March 2005 (see Norfolk County Council website - www.norfolk.gov.uk… - accessed in February 2008). The September 2004 planning approval followed many planning applications for the land between the A11 and the hospital. Broadly these planning applications have been in two phases. The first phase was in the 1990s and concerned a series of applications from Tesco and Colney Developments for first, a petrol filling station and convenience store on a wedge of land just east of the southern bypass and north of the A11 and then for a filling station and a link road. These planning applications were refused a number o2f times. The second phase was from about 2001 and concerned applications for a housing development (750 houses) and associated services from the Cringleford Consortium of Landowners with the project coordinator being Michael Falcon of Property Solutions. There was also an application for a link road. In August 2004 planning approval was given for both the housing development and the link road. |
At that time, in 1989, it had been planned to maintain the hospital at St Stephen's and to build a new hospital at Colney Lane. This would have provided an aggregate of about 1650 beds, with 920 beds at Colney Lane (see NNHCT, 1994, 6 and NHA 1992, 2) and more than 700 at St Stephen's/West Norwich. In February 1990, 'approval in principle' was given by Kenneth Clarke, the Secretary of State for Health, for the construction of a new 920 bed hospital at Colney Lane at an estimated construction cost of £104 million (but still with the St Stephen's hospital being kept open) (NHA 1992, 2). However there was concern about a split site and about the large increase in the number of beds, given changes in clinical practices (NNHCT 1996, 21).
37 For more discussion of the networks in favour of, first, the Hellesdon and then, second, the Colney sites, see Greenaway et al 2007and the Eastern Daily Press of February 10 2005