Redevelopment of former hospital set to move forward

Plans for the redevelopment of the long derelict North Wales Hospital site in Denbigh have been recommended for approval.Vale of Clwyd-based Jones Bros want to build 300 new homes and facilities for local businesses, shops and leisure facilities, including a new home for the town’s cricket club, on the 50.6-acre site.The company’s ten-year project will also restore and convert the central section of the grade II*-listed former psychiatric hospital which was opened in 1848 and which cared for thousands of patients until its closure in 1995.Since then it has steadily fallen into disrepair and ruin as inaction by previous owners and arson attacks and vandalism have made the site ever more dangerous.The plans submitted by Jones Bros will be considered at Denbighshire County Council’s Planning Committee on 8 September, with a recommendation that they be approved.The company has worked with the council to draw up a scheme of restoration and regeneration for the site. If planning permission is granted the project is forecast to also provide a £75m boost to the local economy and support about 1,200 jobs.Jones Bros, a civil engineering company with headquarters in Ruthin and which operates across the UK, has already built its new training centre on the site. The centre employs 20 staff and trains 30 apprentices annually in accredited qualifications in construction and plant operation and also provides training for the company’s 340 staff to update their skills.The centrepiece of the scheme will preserve the central U-shaped section of the hospital with the section restored and turned into residential apartments. These will be complemented by a mix of services which could include shops, restaurants and a gym while elsewhere on the site they plan to build homes styled on traditional Denbigh and Vale of Clwyd houses and possibly include a shop, a pub and a brand new, purpose-built ground for Denbigh Cricket Club.