Shortlisted location options

Following a competitive tender exercise, planning and environmental consultancy Stride Treglown were selected to undertake the site selection study.

Stride Treglown were asked to identify potential sites of 40-50 hectares in size to accommodate a new hospital as well as other facilities, such as an ambulance station and car parking.

Candidate sites had to be located in the Hampshire Hospitals catchment area, potentially available, well located, accessible and able to be supplied with utilities connections. 

Stride Treglown initially identified 14 sites as potential options for a possible new hospital:

• Andover South
• Basingstoke Junction 6 M3
• Basingstoke Junction 7 M3
• Basingstoke North (current site of Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital)
• Basingstoke Leisure Park
• Basingstoke West
• Bullington Cross
• Bullington Cross (North East)
• Bushfield Camp, Winchester
• Land north of Basingstoke Crematorium
• Micheldever Station
• St John Moore Barracks, Winchester
• Sutton Scotney South
• Winchester North

The following sites were discounted at this initial stage:

The current site of Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester, was also assessed as part of this process. It was discounted as too small for the project as it measures just seven hectares, well below the preferred size and less than half the area occupied by Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

The nine remaining sites were ranked according to how they performed in an evaluation against the following 36 weighted criteria covering planning, environmental and transport factors:

1. Site size – medical campus 
2. Site size – extended campus 
3. Current use 
4. Adjacent uses 
5. Topographic overview (narrative only – not scored) 
6. Electricity connectivity 
7. Gas connectivity 
8. Openreach (broadband) connectivity 
9. Underlying ground conditions and associated construction implications 
10. Flood risk 
11. Site access 
12. Highways connectivity 
13. Access to the M3 (narrative only – not scored) 
14. Access to the A303 (narrative only – not scored) 
15. Access to the A34 (narrative only – not scored) 
16. Public transport (rail) connectivity 
17. Public transport (bus) connectivity 
18. Population catchment 
19. Staff catchment 
20. Impact on ambulance travel times 
21. Impact on non-emergency patient transport 
22. Sustainable travel (walking and cycling) 
23. Impact on air ambulance service 
24. Proximity to heritage assets 
25. Proximity to landscape designations 
26. Proximity to nature conservation designations 
27. Archeological importance 
28. Proximity to crematoria and water treatment works 
29. Proximity to housing 
30. Site exposure and prominence 
31. Ecological 
32. Risk of contamination 
33. Air quality 
34. Acoustic impact 
35. Impact on current services during construction 
36. Proximity to a choice of local housing and services (for NHS workers) and access to a local labour market 

The four lowest ranked sites were discounted following this work, leaving the top five sites to be taken through to the next stage:

Later in the process an issue regarding the availability of the top ranked site – land near to Junction 7 of the M3 – emerged but an alternative location within the same land holding was identified.

The land availability investigation examined ownership, owners’ willingness to sell, potential land price and deliverability.

Following a competitive tender process, it was carried out by commercial agents Vail Williams.They entered conversations with each landowner to establish the planned use, potential availability, and willingness to sell for use as a site for a hospital. 

Following completion of the study, three of the potential sites were rejected:

This left two sites remaining:

Two locations remain as potential sites for a possible new hospital to serve the area as part of the Hampshire Together: Modernising our Hospitals and Health Services programme.

• Land near to Junction 7 of the M3
• The current site of Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital

At this stage, neither of these have been selected as a preferred site for a centralised acute hospital.

No decisions on location have been made or finalised. We have listened to everyone who submitted possible site suggestions during our public and staff engagement period, which ran from June to the first week of August 2020.

The two shortlisted site options will be taken forward to public consultation.

The programme includes the possibility of the construction of a centralised acute hospital as part of the government’s Health Infrastructure Plan – with enhancement of the facilities at Winchester hospitals also part of the overall proposal.

People have a range of changing health needs and it is important that we design the future shape of health services to meet those needs. The Hampshire Together programme is focused on exactly that – looking at health and care services across mid and north Hampshire and making sure they are fit for the future.

Our ambition is to make sure most day-to-day health and hospital services are provided locally, but more specialised services that are for the sickest patients, are provided from a centre that covers a wider catchment area. This enables specialist doctors and nurses to retain their expertise by seeing and treating enough patients with the same condition; and ensures we can staff these more specialist services safely. If specialist services work over too small a catchment area, seeing enough patients of the same type can be a challenge.

Part of the work currently underway, and that will be part of our public consultation, is to look at exactly how we can design our services to make them safe, high quality and sustainable for the people of mid and north Hampshire for the long term. We will put forward some detailed proposals for achieving this, and won’t make any final decisions on this until after our public consultation.

What we are clear about is that we want to harness the investment from the government’s Health Infrastructure Plan and update our facilities and buildings for the benefit of everyone across mid and north Hampshire.

Recently, the Prime Minster confirmed the funding for the Hampshire Together programme. Read the full statement here. The published list states that money is available to build a new hospital to replace Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and carry out a major refurbishment at Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

However, neither the location of any new facility, nor the make-up of services provided there, will be decided ahead of a period of formal public consultation.

The current site of Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital is still being considered as a possible site option for two reasons:

1. The site size can be extended. The site is not within the 40-50 hectare criteria. It might, however, be extended by purchasing nearby land.
2. As the site is in an urban setting it can be developed at a higher density, by building higher than would be the case in a more rural location, the amount of development per hectare would be greater.

Other sites that are smaller than the 40-50 hectares were considered but none had the same development potential.

There would undoubtedly be challenges in building the new hospital as services continue to be provided at the existing hospital. However, existing hospital services could continue whilst building a new hospital on the existing site by temporarily relocating onsite car parking to enable the current car parks to be the site of the new construction. Some existing services could be moved temporarily to allow the building work to take place.

All suggestions for potential site locations during the public engagement process, which took place from June to early August 2020, were considered in detail.

In one case, a suggestion was made for a site that had already been evaluated during the site selection study and taken forward for the longlist of site options. Other suggestions were rejected due to varying factors, such as area, availability and size.