Rowley Park £2m hospital plan

A £2 million scheme to boost the size of a private hospital in Stafford will be decided by councillors tonight.

The move would double the number of operating theatres at Rowley Park Hospital and increase the number of patients' bedrooms by more than 50 per cent.

Ramsay Health Care UK is seeking planning permission from Stafford Borough Council for a range of extensions to the hospital in Rowley Park.

It is the second attempt to extend the building. The revised application involves a two-storey extension to the side, a single-storey extension to the back and a glazed single-storey extension to the front of the listed building.

The extensions will house a new waiting room, a new operating theatre and eight new bedrooms with the hospital, which opened in 1987, currently having one operating theatre and 14 bedrooms.

It also involves minor alterations to service areas and internal alterations as well as 13 extra car parking spaces within the driveway to the building, which dates back to 1817.

The hospital offers general surgical procedures, cosmetic surgery, laser eye correction, physiotherapy and a skin cancer screening service.

General manager Gloria Kerrigan said the extension would allow the hospital to offer more procedures in future.

The plans have been "called in" to tonight's committee meeting by Councillor Patrick Farrington so councillors can decide on the conditions that should be imposed if the development is given the green light.

These include traffic movement, management of trees on the grounds, visual impact and fencing.

Planning officers at the council have recommended councillors approve the plans on the condition that £10,000 is given as a Section 106 agreement to compensate for the loss of open space.

The council did approve a larger extension at the site in December 2008 but never agreed on the terms of the Section 106 contributions with the hospital's owners.

In their report they added there would be loss of some trees "but a refusal on this ground is not considered to be sustainable given the impact will be the same as the previously approved scheme."