£4.7M contract awarded for major redevelopment of historic hospital site

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Senior councillors have approved a contract worth up to £4.7m to a local firm for Phase 1 of the redevelopment of the former North Wales Hospital.

The decision, which was taken by Denbighshire County Council’s cabinet, allows the local authority to proceed with site clearance, asbestos removal, and the demolition of buildings.

The contract was awarded to Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK Ltd.

Cabinet approval was required because the estimated cost exceeds the £2m threshold.

Costing a total of £107m, the redevelopment of the site is expected to take 12 years to complete. The Grade Two listed former psychiatric hospital closured in 1995.

Since then it has steadily fallen into disrepair and ruin as inaction by previous owners and arson attacks and vandalism have made the site ever more dangerous.

Denbighshire County Council bought the site using a compulsory purchase order in 2018, and the eventual development could see 300 new homes built on the land as well as business units.
Phase 1 will be funded through £1.7m from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund, with £3m from the North Wales Growth Deal.

In response to worsening conditions on the site, the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee has already authorised the early release of £2m, with the option of a further £1m.

The North Wales Hospital opened in 1848 to provide care for Welsh-speaking people suffering from mental illness and by the 1950s it housed over 1500 patients and was the major employer in the town but in 1987 it was scheduled for closure and the last patient left in 1995.