Plans submitted to give former South Tyneside health centre 'new lease of life'

A former health centre in Hebburn could receive a new lease of life as a specialist care facility under plans submitted to council development bosses.

South Tyneside Council’s planning department has received an application for the Hebburn Health Centre site off Campbell Park Road in the town.

The GP surgery at the site previously relocated to the Glen Primary Care Centre and although a pharmacy remains occupied, the majority of the site has sat vacant for months.

After being marketed by NHS Property Services, it is understood new owners took over the Hebburn Health Centre site earlier this year and are now looking to reopen the building as a specialist care facility.

A planning application submitted to the council is seeking permission to change the use of the building to “incorporate respite sleeping care facilities for adults with severe disabilities”.

Plans are also proposing a “day centre/community respite service” at the site, along with works to the building, including the installation of a lift shaft, and “external refurbishment” and landscaping.

A planning and design statement submitted with the application lists the applicant as H&Z Investment Limited and provides more details on the proposed development and its aims.

This includes the provision of a “day centre and community respite service” providing “therapeutic and sensory treatments and environments for adults (age 18+) with profound, complex, multi-physical and learning disabilities”.

Applicants say the service would be for those who “require a higher level of treatment and intervention to maintain and improve their physical and mental health needs” and clients could include “those with severe physical disability needs” such as “hydrocephalus, epilepsy and blind loop syndrome”.

Under proposed plans, the ground floor of the former health centre would include several facilities such as a 10-person swimming pool, sensory room, therapy and activity rooms, TV room, dining room and toilets, as well as an office, kitchen and laundry room.

Meanwhile, the first floor would include “art and therapy rooms, assisted bathroom and toilets”.

Proposed sleeping respite care would operate from eight bedrooms, with four on the ground floor and four on the first floor, with respite care being provided for up to four weeks.

Planning documents add the proposed day centre and community respite service would operate daily between 9am and 4pm while the hydrotherapy pool would be available to hire from 4pm to 7pm, with the “focus of the use for clients with disabilities”.

Applicants have also said the development would support around 20 new jobs, with the majority being full-time roles, and that the site would “provide specialist care based on the needs of the individual client” and a “much needed service”.

The planning and design statement adds: “The proposed development would reuse an existing building within a sustainable main town.

“This would help improve the role of Hebburn and would provide a development that would deliver important community benefits, particularly to those with specific health needs.

“There are no similar specialised services available within the area, particularly those which include access to the hydrotherapy pool and sensory room, as a result, there is a high demand for the facilities that would be provided by the development.

“In addition to the benefits to users of the service, the development would also support the delivery of at least 14 full-time and 6-8 part-time jobs.”

Daycare clients are expected to be “dropped off at the site and then collected at the end of the day”.

Those behind the scheme added that the main difference between the former health centre use and proposed new care facility use would be “staff being on the site overnight”.

However, applicants said that “clients staying at the centre for respite care would arrive at different points during working hours, rather than in the evening”.

A decision on the planning application will be made once a period of council consultation has concluded.

Comments can be made on the plans, via South Tyneside Council’s planning portal website, until October 31, 2024.

For more information on the planning application or to track its progress, visit the council’s planning portal website and search reference: ST/0603/24/FUL