Land at a Norfolk town’s hospital could one day be repurposed to accommodate as many as 90 new homes.
A document submitted by the Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) to Breckland Council outlines how some 95pc of the land at Dereham Hospital could be redeveloped into a mixture of residential, retirement and supported-living units.
The trust clarified that it had no current plans to pursue such a scheme, but that it was continuing “to explore options for its future use”.
It added that in the event of such redevelopment, one of the hospital’s buildings would continue serving patients, while a new facility would also be provided for continued healthcare on the site.
The document making this suggestion was given to the council as part of the authority’s recent ‘call for sites’, which has asked landowners to come forward with potential sites for development.
The ‘call for sites’ is part of the council’s process of updating its ‘local plan’ - a document specifying how the district should grow over the coming 24 years.
Other sites identified include a swath of land around the edge of Dereham capable of incorporating some 1,400 new homes, a potential 1,850-home expansion of Thetford and a vast 5,000-home ‘railway village’ between the existing settlements of Bintree, Billingford and North Elmham.
The land at Dereham Hospital, which is set within spacious Victorian grounds, has been identified as “surplus” for some years, but has not so far been disposed of.
Andrew Hopkins, director of finance and performance at NCH&C said: "The information submitted by NCH&C sets out potential options for the site. No decisions have been made about what the spare land will be used for or if it will be sold.
"NCH&C is committed to continuing to provide services from the site. There is significant spare land surrounding our hospital on the site and the trust continues to explore options for its future use.
“As is often the case with large areas of land there has been developer interest, but no dialogue is being progressed with developers for the site."
Earlier this year, NHS documents suggested that the site at Dereham had room for 96 homes, while similarly 'surplus' land at Kelling Hospital could accommodate 88.
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