Planners back Bolton College of Medical Sciences

The proposed redevelopment of a site within the Royal Bolton Hospital complex to provide a training facility has been approved by planners.Bolton Council’s planning committee has backed The Bolton College of Medical Sciences (BCMS) project, a collaboration between Bolton College (the lead partner), Bolton NHS Foundation Trust (Bolton Hospital), the University of Bolton and Bolton Council.The aim of the BCMS project is to provide a vocational, professional skills and training facility for existing and new hospital staff.Comprising a part four-storey, part five-storey structure of approximately 80,000 sq ft of internal floorspace, the proposed BCMS building will be sited in the northern section of the site.The building will contain a mix of teaching/learning space, with a heavy emphasis on practical learning, a café, and associated staff and service spaces.A surface car park of 170 spaces is proposed, which will include 18 electric vehicle charging points and ten disabled bays. Three secure cycle parking stores are planned to accommodate 60 cycle parking spaces.Planning permission was previously approved for the BCMS building at the hospital site. The current application is for the same site area and proposes minor amendments to the size, design and layout of the BCMS building. However, it primarily seeks to progress the development without the multi-storey car park.Also approved by the committee were plans for a public on the site of the former Odeon Cinema, however they refused a scheme to build 94 houses on land off Inverberg Drive.All of the homes would have been affordable with Bolton at Home being the registered provider.The site is used by Wyresdale Amateur Football Club, who are currently looking to relocate to another site approximately 450m away, owing to what the applicant has stated to be “poor condition of the site’s existing pitches”.The majority of the site is therefore greenfield, with the northern section being brownfield.However, the application attracted 142 objections, with concerns raised about the impact of the scheme on highways, green and recreational space, biodiversity, residential amenity and the layout/design.