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Dorset County Hospital and Prime PLC submits two outline planning applications for hospital expansion and new key worker housing

On behalf of Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (DCHFT) and Prime PLC (Prime), Turley has submitted two outline planning applications to build new and expanded hospital facilities and key worker housing at the Dorset County Hospital site in Dorchester.

We are providing expert Planning, EIA, Heritage and Sustainability services to DCHFT and Prime on their redevelopment proposals for the hospital. Dorset County Hospital serves a catchment of approximately 300,000 people living within Weymouth and Portland, West Dorset, North Dorset, and Purbeck and is a fundamental component of the local healthcare infrastructure in Dorset.

These plans form part of the Dorset County Hospital’s (DCH) Your Future Hospital Programme and has been earmarked funding from the Government’s New Hospital Programme.  The plans include an expanded Emergency Department and Critical Care Unit, alongside other hospital facilities including a new two-storey main entrance and Hospital Support Centre. It will also include the provision of an Integrated Health Hub, a one stop community facility providing health and social care, aimed at reducing the number of patients admitted to hospital.  The proposed development has been informed by the findings of a Clinical Services Review (led by NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)) and is supported by the Government’s New Hospital Programme.

A separate outline planning application for up to 95 key worker dwellings in the western part of the hospital campus seeks to provide high quality homes to ensure that staff have access to the right accommodation in the right place, at the right time. The provision of on-site housing for NHS key workers and those in the emergency services and public sector will help to ensure the sustainable delivery of services for the Dorset community. 

A positive pre-application consultation with Dorset Council was conducted in the lead up to the application submissions and an EIA screening opinion received in April 2022, confirmed that the development proposals would not constitute EIA development.

Following the publication of Natural England advice in March 2022, it was decided that the hospital facilities and key worker housing proposals would be split into separate planning applications. This will enable nutrient neutrality mitigation to be dealt with separately given this only applies to development proposals with the potential to increase population (i.e. the residential element of the development). 

We look forward to continuing working with DCHFT and Prime to work towards realising their redevelopment vision for the site.

26 May 2022