Basildon Ambulance Hub

Description

East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (the "Trust") wishes to deliver a new ambulance hub facility (the "Hub") and intends to enter into a development agreement with Basildon Borough Council (the "Council") for the construction of the Hub on a site owned by the Council. Under the terms of the development agreement with the Council, the Council intends to run a competitive process in order to appoint a suitably qualified construction contractor to undertake the works. Lot 1: The Council owns land which sits adjacent to Basildon University Hospital (the "Site"). The Site is located next to the hospital's emergency department which brings about significant logistical benefits, optimising the Trust's ability to deliver an effective and efficient service, as well as enabling funding to be obtained from the public works loan board, ensuring value for money. The Trust requires a site of approx. 2 acres (sites of less than 1.75 acres are regarded as unsuitable) within 500-1000 metres of the hospital entrance. The current facility is 1500m away from the hospital entrance and, unless the new Hub was located closer to the hospital, it would be of little additional benefit to the Trust. In addition, the new Hub needs to: - provide good access onto the major roads network (access into local residential roads would not be acceptable as this would likely give rise to significant disruption to the local area and would jeopardise the speed at which ambulances could be despatched from the Hub); - be located on a site which would be regarded as likely to achieve a planning consent for an Ambulance Hub; - be located on a site where the owner agrees to the development of the site for an ambulance hub; and - be located on a site where the owner is prepared to deliver a new hub as a "turnkey" development on the site. I.e. design construct and lease the finished scheme to the Trust as the Trust requires to fund the development through rental, not capital. However, the Trust also requires the flexibility to invest capital and reduce its rental obligations under the project, in the event that any capital funding becomes available to the Trust. After performing an analysis of sites within a 1,500m radius of the hospital entrance: - 4 of those sites were regarded as being too small; - due to the major regeneration schemes being progressed by owners in the town centre, several of the larger sites are already well progressed in planning terms for mixed use development that are primarily residential; - only 3 sites were identified as being likely to obtain a planning consent for a Hub development, and one of those is the Hospital site itself. The Hospital Trust is seeking to relocate non-clinical services away from this site to enable a focus on clinical care. Setting aside a 2-acre site for an Ambulance Hub within the hospital site would not therefore be possible; Therefore, the only site that emerged from the above analysis, which meets the criteria discussed above, is the Site.