The deputy chief executive of Alder Hey hospital has apologised to the community for delays in handing back green space used to site the new medical centre.
In 2015, the specialist children’s hospital opened its new healthcare campus on land within Springfield Park resulting in green space being lost in the community. As part of a land exchange agreement with Liverpool Council made in 2012, Alder Hey is obligated to return 9.4 hectares of land back to council ownership but a deal has yet to be completed.
John Grinnell, deputy CEO and finance director at Alder Hey, issued a public apology for the ongoing delays to a packed meeting held at the hospital’s innovation building on Wednesday night. Mr Grinnell also confirmed the hospital trust will be spending more than £6m to restore the land to the community.
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He said: “I can feel the passion for the park and what’s gone on and it’s not been easy to hear some of that stuff. On behalf of the hospital, I’d like to apologise for the delays incurred in giving the park back.
“There’s been a significant delay on you not being able to enjoy the park as you wanted to. We are sorry.”
Last September, planning permission was granted for a new development on land on nearby Springfield Gardens, with a series of office, commercial and residential housing blocks built. Work is yet to get underway on that scheme but was met with hostility by those in attendance.
Keith Jones, 80, who has lived in the area for more than half a century, said: “Springy was my home” and “we don’t want it to go.” Mr Jones, a former football referee, added: “It’s been a joke the past 12 years, it was utilised every day, now it’s gone.
“I’m not against the hospital being built.” The long-term resident, who gave a passionate presentation on the history of the site, said: “This is a meeting that should’ve taken place many years ago.
“We want Alder Hey and Liverpool Council to work together with the community to get what we want, which is park land. There’s nowhere for youth to participate in sporting activity because we’ve lost it all.”
Mr Grinnell said Alder Hey had “an absolute commitment to create a high standard park” and he personally was “committed to seeing it through.” He added that the hospital wanted to do a “high quality job” and the £6m put into two phase restoration of the park was “far bigger than expected.”
The first phase, completed in October last year, returned 1.8 hectares to Liverpool Council ownership with the second and third phases involving a multi use games area, football pitches and additional foliage and trees expected to be completed by next summer, according to Jim O’Brien, deputy development director.
He said the NHS trust had a “backstop date” of November for final completion but hoped to give the full 9.4 hectares back to the community in the summer. Mr O’Brien said the Old Catkin outpatient centre would be decommissioned by the end of January 2023, with the majority of staff relocated to a new space.
He added that the building would be demolished between February and April. Mr Grinnell and Mr O’Brien were criticised by the assembled residents who said they couldn’t trust the hospital and felt what they had delivered “was rubbish” and the track record of the board had been “shocking.”
Cllr Harry Doyle, who organised the meeting, said it was “very clear we’ve been let down over the years” and said “let’s see what will be delivered, we’ll hold them to that.” Mr Grinnell said: "If this hasn't been delivered by this time next year, we will have failed you."
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