Some healthy developments

Walnut Tree Hospital, once the Workhouse!

At Chilton Parish Council Meeting on Tuesday there was an update on the situation with regard to the prospects for various National Health owned properties around Sudbury.

It was re-iterated that, contrary to what has been reported in the press, ‘contractors will be on site’ in the Spring at the new Health Centre Site in Church Field Road, Chilton.  It is important to get the work started before birds take it into their heads to start nesting , and it was (jokingly perhaps) suggested that a man with a gun would need to take up a position on the site to see them off.   

Although this is not encouraging for birdlife, it is good news for all who have been looking forward to seeing the facility become a reality.

Scepticism and doubt with regard to the intentions of NHS management over the new centre are unsurprising given the history of previous disappointments related to the previous hospital site on the inappropriately named 'People's Park'.  Controversy continues to rage, with a sense of injustice being felt by those who think that the NHS should not be allowed develop the area for anything other than health facilities.  After all, this was what they committed themselves to do when the land was purchased from the community almost 30 years ago.

 Many are of the opinion that the financial windfall from the proposed housing development on the site has been achieved through a combination of delay, prevarication and deception.   The authority ought of course to put things right by selling the land back to the community.  They will only do this however after the site has had the benefit of planning permission!  This pushes the cost beyond what is affordable, and so many Sudbury residents sense that they have been wrongly deprived of a valuable and rare stretch of green space, in a town where open spaces are at a premium.

'People's Park' with welcoming NHS sign!

On a brighter note, plans are in the pipeline to develop both the Walnut Tree Hospital and St Leonard Hospital sites for housing, and public exhibitions etc. will be organised in due course.  There is a suggestion that the outpatients unit (where you now go for all those blood tests) may be the focus for community asset provision under a Section 106 agreement.  A community/church hall is possible, as is a space for the conservation of Sudbury archival material.

With all these houses planned on attractive sites close to the centre of Sudbury, one wonders who on earth will want to buy the homes at Chilton Woods!