Manchester Council’s Executive Committee have today approved plans for Wythenshawe Hospital Campus to be be turned into a sustainable health village.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Bruntwood have developed a masterplan to support the development of Wythenshawe Hospital Campus as a sustainable health village over a 10 to 15 years period, enhancing the Hospital whilst diversifying uses to include complementary commercial, leisure and retail set within a high quality, greener public realm according to the summary prepared for councillors.
The Health village could become “the next life sciences R&D destination within Greater Manchester” and could support complementary research and
development, office (including light manufacturing associated with the hospital R&D) and workspace buildings.
There could also be residential facilities for worker housing and step-down care facilities.Other complementary uses would include hotels,conferencing, leisure, training, ancillary retail, and multistorey car parking
“Wythenshawe Hospital Campus could appropriately become a sustainable health village, leveraging its strengths and advantages in terms of clinical, research and innovation excellence to make a significant contribution to Greater Manchester’s identified health and social care priorities, as well as established economic, social and environmental
objectives within local and national policy.” adds the document.
The hospital would continue to function as normal while development work continued says the report prepared by Deloitte.
Although not considered to be a location for general residential use, the report finds that there is a clear opportunity to provide an element of residential use within the overall mix that is linked to the hospital function, which would contribute towards achieving a balanced supply in accordance with Core Strategy Policy Overall Housing within the Council’s plans.
The Wythenshawe Hospital Campus would be developed in line with a campus-wide sustainable travel plan, which would provide a framework to improve sustainable transport choices by staff and visitors Meanwhile Future development ought not to be designed around use of the private car and, consideration could be given to bridging gaps in the current public transport infrastructure, for example through the use of shuttle buses, in future travel planning.
The Leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese, said: “The plan to create a ‘health village’ at the Wythenshawe Hospital campus represents a real opportunity to strengthen the city’s existing science base and, critically, to significantly improve health and social facilities for Manchester, while also contributing to the city’s ambitious aims to become zero-carbon by 2038.
“As well as the key aim of enhancing the hospital for patients and visitors, there is real potential to build on its strengths in research and development to create new jobs and apprenticeships for the local community.”
Mandy Bailey, Chief Executive of Wythenshawe Hospital, part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Wythenshawe Masterplan sets out an ambitious vision for the redesign of the whole Wythenshawe Hospital campus. Together we aim to build a diverse, innovative and technologically advanced health community, home to exceptional and sustainable healthcare facilities.
“By creating a globally competitive destination where commercial, research and medical industries can work together we will bring jobs, skills and the latest healthcare developments to the region for the benefit of our local community”
