Ellen Badger Hospital
Overview
McLoughlin Planning has secured planning permission to redevelop Ellen Badger hospital, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire to provide a much-needed BREEAM Excellent integrated health and well-being community hub, that includes a medical centre, café, well-being centre, and a community garden. The project is a great example of the NHS pulling together its different functions and services.
Whilst the proposed development replaces an existing medical centre, the development’s edge of settlement location, re-siting, and a significant increase in size (both in floor space and height) to accommodate the additional demand of the local community were key planning and design issues which we needed to assess and overcome.
We worked closely with architects One Creative to ensure the proposed development respected its context and edge of the settlement location to provide a positive example of new development for the community. For example, the existing river to the back of the development site has been incorporated into the scheme as part of a community garden creating a place for nature and tranquillity.
Our understanding of the policy requirements of Stratford District Council, and the undertaking of a meaningful pre-application submission and public consultation allowed us to advise the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust on a planning strategy to ensure that the parameters of the proposed development were policy compliant.
Due to the scale of the development proposed and, for the Trust to retain essential services for the community, we worked with the Council to find an appropriate way through suitably worded planning conditions to break up the development into 2 phases. This avoided the need for two separate planning applications and provide a clear and single reference point for the Trust to ensure compliance with their planning permission.
