Planning permission to rebuild St Albans City Hospital could be revoked, as local councils and an NHS Trust has not been able to complete a legal agreement on time.

At the hospital  “many buildings are coming to the end of their instillation life” and plans have been put together to flatten and rebuild part of the site.

St Albans City and District Council granted West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust permission to press ahead with its plans in September 2022 – if legal agreements could be signed off within six months.

But council documents show local authorities have failed to complete the agreements within the deadline.

The city and district council’s planning committee will meet on Monday, May 22, where councillors may agree to extend the deadline, which originally expired on March 26.

A meeting report reads: “The committee resolved to grant planning permission subject to conditions and completion of a legal agreement within six months.

“The Section 106 agreement has been drafted in line with the heads of terms and a second draft is currently with the county council for review.

“Owing to resourcing pressures, the agreement has not been completed and sealed within the deadline set at the September 2022 committee of March 26, 2023.

“Officers are therefore seeking a four-month extension of time to complete the Section 106 and issue the decision notice until July 26, 2023.

“It is very much hoped and expected that not all of this time will be needed.”

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Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 gives planning authorities the power to make legal agreements requiring developers to use land in a specific way, or pay for local services.

One of the legal agreements which councillors debated in 2022 was Hertfordshire County Council’s request for a £1,200 per annum cash pot – linked to inflation – for five years.

This would pay for a five-year Travel Plan for the development, which will allow the highways authority to monitor the hospital and identify a package of measures to improve accessibility and encourage sustainable transport.

NHS signalled need for ‘replacement now’ in original application

In the original application, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust set out that 60 per cent of the current hospital facilities “are not functionally suitable”.

When planning documents were handed to St Albans council in summer 2022, the NHS Trust set out that the large Gloucester Ward is “currently operational but will need major investment or replacement within the next five years to remain sound and operationally safe”.

But the hospital’s Runcie and Moynihan wards, as well as the other buildings need “major investment or replacement now” to stay safe.

The statement adds: “Generally, the external realm is of poor quality for pedestrians and vehicles.

“Existing footpaths are narrow and cluttered with vehicle bollards and signposts. In some instances, they have been blocked by temporary clinical buildings.

“The existing external realm is relatively pleasant to the area around the principal entrance and visitors’ car park, which benefits from the shade of mature trees.

“Further into the site, the external realm is uninviting for visitors and building users, with little amenity space for staff and visitors.

“Surface car parks are patched and uneven, and footpaths are in need of maintenance."

The outline planning application sets out a plan to “uplift biodiversity” with new planting to insects and wildlife, and by reusing some materials.

The new builds will be “sensitive” to the “locally listed” Old Hospital and nearby Victorian terraced houses.

The new theatre will “increase service capacity and address future demand”, according to West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

If work goes ahead, the current endoscopy service at Hemel Hempstead Hospital would be moved to St Albans – to “free up space at Hemel Hempstead Hospital for planned medical service and to enable the endoscopy service to expand”.

If outline planning permission is allowed to continue, the St Albans City Hospital redevelopment can proceed to the next stage of the process to determine more precise details – such as “access” and “appearance”.

The hospital refurbishment is part of a wider package for south-west Hertfordshire, funded through the government’s New Hospital Programme.

An NHS Trust webpage on the project reads: “We are pleased to be in line to receive much-needed funding for our hospital buildings.

“We have an agreed shortlist of options for improving our current three hospital sites.

“Our preferred option is for a new emergency care building at Watford General Hospital and significant refurbishment of Hemel Hempstead and St Albans City Hospitals’ buildings with some new build.”