Chester Business Park office to become psychiatric hospital with 420 staff

A deserted office block in Chester is set to be turned into a psychiatric hospital creating more than 400 jobs, despite concerns being raised over public safety.

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee rubber-stamped an application by Cygnet Health Care to transform part of the two-storey building at One Lakeside at Chester Business Park.

The building has been closed since 2020 and much of it never occupied. According to the plans, the new hospital will have three wards on the first floor, consisting of two psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) with an acute inpatient care ward.

The PICU wards include 12 beds in each (male and female) while the acute ward would have 16 beds (male). A training ward on the ground floor will have 12 beds and also act as a ‘Nightingale ward’, providing extra bedspace when needed.

The hospital is set to employ more than 420 people working across healthcare, pharmacy, IT and facilities roles.

But concerns had been raised by some local residents, including the Kings Moat Garden Village Resident Association, and the plans were called in by ward councillor Razia Daniels.

She told a planning meeting: “This proposal involves the development of a psychiatric intensive care unit, which naturally raises heightened concerns amongst residents. These concerns are not rooted in stigma, but in real and practical matters of safety, supervision and emergency response.”

She added: “The site’s proximity to a day nursery, schools and busy roads, including open water and ponds nearby, has also led to fears about patient abscond community safety and the risk this may pose to vulnerable children.”

Cygnet said the facility was needed due to the ‘high demand’ for specialist mental health services in the area, citing that 48 patients from the Cheshire and Wirral area are currently being cared for outside of the area.

Cheshire Police welcomed the plans saying the safety measures in place were ‘more than adequate’ and that additional psychiatric beds would help alleviate pressure on its resources.

Concerns were also raised at the meeting about internal layout, but Committee chair Cllr Gina Lewis said that was not in chiefs’ remit.

She said: “We’ve heard that perhaps there needs to be a little more thought given to that design, but as a planning committee we can’t dictate just what that design is. Planning laws as they are don’t give us the armoury to do that.”

The building was purpose built for Bank of America around 2004, with the ground floor being utilised by MBNA, a former subsidiary.

By Mark Smith – Local Democracy Reporter