Plans approved for 178 new homes on site of former mental health hospital in Morpeth

The third phase of housing on the site of St George’s Hospital, which closed in 2006, will see 94 homes built alongside an 84-apartment block providing extra care for elderly residents.

The apartments meet an “identified need” for supported living in the Morpeth area and include a number of homes for people living with dementia.

However, the apartment block meant that the scheme would have been “unviable” if developers Countryside Partnerships were to pay the council the expected Section 106 contributions.

These legal agreements between councils and developers are used to secure contributions to services such as roads, schools and health which will experience increased pressure due to housing developments, as well as the delivery of affordable housing.

At a meeting of Northumberland County Council’s strategic planning committee, planning officer Tamsin Wood explained: “The applicant has submitted a viability assessment to show that the development would be unviable if the applicant had to pay all the section 106 conditions.

"We have agreed that in order to help the scheme go ahead, we will not be asking for any section 106 contributions towards health, education, parks and gardens from the business.”

The council’s head of planning, Rob Murfin, added: “This is the most unusual scheme we have had for several years. We have tried to tackle several aims: a really strong design; to deliver extra care, which is something our adult services have really underlined the need for here; and to tackle the issue of viability on the site.

“We have the ability to claw back 106 funding if the sales prices and costs are different. We can’t do any more than that.”

Countryside Partnerships’ head of development, Melissa Flynn, explained that the site was “challenging” due to the fact several former hospital buildings remained that would need to be demolished. She added that “a lot of effort” had been put into the design.

The application was recommended for approval by council planners, and members of the committee unanimously agreed to vote with that recommendation. However, there was some concern about the lack of section 106 contributions.

Cllr Ian Hutchinson said: “I’m not happy about having no 106 agreements. I understand if there was one, this scheme couldn’t go forward.

“This has been on the cards for years so I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us when we discover our schools are overflowing with extra kids and our health service isn’t adequately funded.

“I will support it, but I am worried.”

Cllr Anna Watson, who works in healthcare, outlined the importance of supported living schemes.

She added: “This scheme shows the difficulty of getting something like this off the ground. This is vitally needed; we’re behind other local authorities and it helps hospitals with discharges.

“By 2025, we will have a million people living with dementia. This is a huge issue going forward.

“I would love to see it done with loses to companies, but that is not the real world. The value of it far outweighs what we’re not getting from 106.”