Frequently Asked Questions

Q02 - What is a Health Campus?

At the heart of the Health Campus is, obviously, a hospital, whose primary focus is to tend to people’s health needs and make them better.

For Watford, we see the Health Campus as a once in a lifetime opportunity to create new places and spaces around the existing hospital as well as deisgning a masterplan that allows for the future much-needed new hospital, which can be used to support and promote healthy living and well-being for the wider community.

We are planning for the Health Campus to provide new employment opportunities, and sufficient leisure, recreation, housing and education to generate a vibrant and sustainable community.

Q04 - How much will the Watford Health Campus cost?

The Health Campus is a major regeneration scheme. We have conducted an estimate of the entire investment and spend required to deliver all of the facilities. This indicates an overall spend in the area of over £350m. This is a considerable sum and would not be achievable without the support of private sector investment to ‘kick start’ the scheme. This will be done through the financing of some of the early housing on the site, the employment space and retail facilities and crucially investing in the infrastructure.

The hospital trust is able to fund £7m towards the construction of a new road, but this is way short of the total cost required of about £16m By working with a LABV the road is achievable, but the timing of this is crucial as the £7m is only available if the road is delivered by 2014/15. Also, the road needs to be built to cross over the Croxley Rail Link before the link goes live in 2015/16 otherwise it will be far more expensive to build the road over a live railway line.

After an open and thorough international procurement process, the Health Campus partnership (Watford Borough Council and West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust) appointed Kier Property Investments Ltd as its private sector partner. Kier has a great deal of experience, and success, in delivering large regeneration schemes and is committed to making the investment needed for the scheme to come to fruition.

Q06 - What is being done about transport, access and parking?

One of the main reasons the site has been allocated within the council’s Core Strategy as an area for development (including new homes) is its excellent link to public transport. The much-longed for Croxley Rail Link (CRL) will run to the south of the Health Campus, so a new tube station will be within 5-10 minutes walking distance. The CRL will be supported by improved bus services and for those who have a commitment to fully green methods of getting about there will be new cycle and footpath networks, which will link into the borough’s current provision.

The new road, which links the Health Campus with Dalton Way, will help ease current localised congestion and, most importantly, improve access to the hospital for emergency vehicles.

The plans agreed will also provide new parking facilities for visitors to the hospital and services and facilities to improve the patient experience and environment. Any new homes will be allocated parking in line with current parking requirements for new developments in the borough.

Q08 - Why does Watford need new homes?

Watford is a popular town and there is increasing demand for more homes in the town. The 2011 census shows that the population of Watford has increased by 13.3% over the last ten years rising to 90,300 people in 2011. There is a need for around 6,500 homes to be built up to 2031. This number is based on current need, future increases in population and the amount of land the council has identified as suitable for housing. It won’t accommodate all of the demand but it’s a reasonable amount.

The council has developed a strategy to ensure that most new homes are built at sustainable locations rather than through infilling (high numbers of small but sporadic conversion of buildings or gardens to residential) , which is not something local people have told us they want to see. The council strategy is to concentrate the building of new houses on developed land, close to neighbourhood centres and with good transport links. The Health Campus is one of these locations. We hope to see around 600 homes at the Health Campus site over a 20 year period.

Some people think an area should be able to ‘stop development’ but we cannot say ‘Watford is full’ – it is not how the planning system works in this country. Even if the Council rejects a planning application, the applicant can appeal to have our decision overturned. But also, in Watford we have nearly 1,500 local families in what is known as ‘priority need’ for housing, which means their circumstances are pretty desperate. Sites like the whole of Health Campus site, where a vast amount of land isn’t currently being used and is just being left derelict, are the best locations for new homes. Some, but by no means all, of which be offered to those in real need.

Q10 - Why do the revised plans for the Health Campus include Farm Terrace allotment land as part of the scheme?

It was agreed by all the Health Campus partners that including Farm Terrace allotments, which is owned by the council, would:

• enable flexibility to meet the requirements of the new hospital so it can build patient facilities in the right place,
• improve the viability of the Health Campus scheme and speed up the works on the site as the allotment land is not contaminated or at risk if flooding
• secure more much-needed family housing as the increased space allows more homes with gardens to be built rather than flats.
• provide for a better designed Health Campus scheme to be developed of sufficient size to make a greater overall improvement for residents of west Watford.
• remove the impact on the amenity of allotment holders. By relocating the site it avoids significant disruption and the impact of pollution that they will otherwise be subject to over the duration of the Health Campus building works.

Professor Thomas Hanahoe, Chairman of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, has said: "...it will be imperative that the option of additional land is available to provide for the facilities required by our patients and in my view it will be difficult to achieve this without the contribution of part of the land presently allocated to the farm terrace allotments. In light of this, I would wish to support the council in giving full consideration to the patients' needs in reaching its decision to consider this for hospital use."

Q12 - Does this mean there will be less allotment space available within Watford?

No. There will be no change to the overall level of allotment provision within the borough. For every square metre of Farm Terrace that is affected there will be a square metre replaced – albeit at a different location in the borough. This is what is expected of councils who change the use of land designated for allotments but it is also something that the council firmly believes should happen.

We are very fortunate in Watford, which is a very small borough (in fact we are the smallest district council in terms of area in the country), that we have an excellent level of allotment provision – well above what national guidelines suggest should be provided.

In number terms, Watford has over 28 hectares of allotment land, equivalent to 3.4m2 per person. The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners suggests that there should be 1.25m2 per person, based on an average plot size of 250m2. So we do really well and this isn’t going to change.

Q14 - What is the new ‘community garden’ planned at the Health Campus?

We have listened to allotment holders and agreed to their suggestion of providing a community garden at the Health Campus.

Other successful community-managed gardens exist across the UK, run by enthusiastic and committed volunteers. A community garden on the Health Campus site could include fruit and vegetable growing areas, raised beds and facilities for training sessions and workshops. It could be used to promote healthy living, working in conjunction with the hospital, to encourage patients to eat well and take gentle exercise.

What it means for local people is that anyone who wants to grow fresh produce in west Watford will have the opportunity to do so – right on their doorstep. Our hope is that this will introduce new and more people to the benefits of gardening than can presently be offered on the site.

Q16 - What happens next?

The Health Campus partnership will submit a planning application to Watford Borough Council for the new road and the Health Campus masterplan in the spring 2013, on which residents and others will be asked their views. Separately, an application will be made to the Secretary of State for the decommissioning of the allotment land.