Bootham Park Hospital redevelopment in York set for approval

Planning committee next week is recommended to approve changing the use of the former hospital into a 172-bed residential care community.

This is despite City of York Council accepting demolishing some of its parts will cause ‘substantial harm’ and opposition from several heritage groups.

Approval is recommended because planners believe the public benefits of the scheme outweigh the harm.

They say it will bring an empty building back into use, which has been empty since 2015.

An artist's impression of the site (Image: Supplied)

Important Grade I-listed buildings will also be restored.

The surrounding area will be landscaped, with the public gaining access.

A council report prepared for Thursday’s meeting says the building originally opened as the York Lunatic Asylum in 1777. It remained in use until closing in 2015.

That year, the Care Quality Commission declared it unfit for use and the site was put on the market. The applicants, Enterprise Retirement Living, bought the site in 2020.

Plans were then developed, with public consultation, before being submitted to the council in September 2021, with further revisions since.

The application concerns the main buildings on the site, bar the Grade II-listed Chapel building which remain as offices used by the NHS.

It seeks to offer 24-hour care to the 172 proposed units, including communal and health and well-being facilities to people over 60 in need of care.

Images of the plans for Bootham Park (Image: Supplied)

There would also be a café, pedestrian/cycle routes through the site, public open space and sports facilities.

Plans also show an agreement with Bootham School to provide them with two football pitches.

The remainder of the 3ha of open space would be for recreation, with a city of council report already setting out arrangements to secure its public use.

However, Grade II-listed structures to the west, known as Pauper Wings would have to be demolished.

The Georgian Society and the Victorian Society oppose this, noting their historic significance and their high-quality decorative schemes from 1886.

But council planning staff say the Pauper Wings are in poor condition. Demolishing them would allow new development to enable “buildings of the highest historical significance to be restored and brought back into use.”

An artist's impression of the redevelopment (Image: Supplied)

In conclusion, planners recommend approval subject to 26 conditions, with a referral to the Secretary of State due to the objections of the historical groups.

The planners said: “The scheme has been robustly informed by Heritage Appraisals that provide an understanding of significance of the heritage assets affected and on balance allow for redevelopment whilst avoiding harm on areas of highest significance.

“The public benefits of the proposed new uses for the site also weigh in favour of the scheme as does the enhancement of the existing landscape in terms of its recreational value and provision of public access."