Long-awaited plans for a new health centre in Thornbury are still “all systems go” despite fresh doubts over funding from the new Labour government, council leaders insist. South Gloucestershire Council bosses say they remain confident that the £14.4million allocated by the Conservatives in Westminster before the general election for the demolition and redevelopment of the former hospital site will not be withdrawn.
Uncertainty is growing over many major projects across the country, such as health and transport, because Labour says the Tories announced a number of them without having the necessary money. Labour’s Bristol South MP and health minister Karin Smyth refused to commit to the Thornbury plans ahead of a spending review, telling BBC1’s Politics West on Sunday, October 6, that the previous government had made promises it knew it could not keep.
She said: “What we found out when we came into government was that the new hospital programme wasn’t fully costed, it wasn’t fully developed. The review is happening and will report in due course with a commitment to making sure people know what is happening and when it’s happening.
“Crucially we will not make the mistakes of the last government, we will not make commitments for money that is not there. I can’t comment further than that at the moment.”
South Gloucestershire Council opposition Conservative group leader Cllr Sam Bromiley told the programme: “That is just a lot of talk. What residents tell me they want is action from their government, and what they’re seeing so far from this Labour government – which already has lower approval ratings than even Rishi had – is a government that is just not delivering for local people, they’re not taking ambitious steps.
“They’re talking the country down, so much so that people are taking their money off-shore and that’s not a way to run a government. You’re not investing in hospitals like you said you would before the election.
“In South Gloucestershire, we’re looking at Thornbury Hospital and we’re thinking ‘are we next?’. The announcement before the election was investment in Thornbury Hospital, which I’m now worried you will take away.”
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Ms Smith said: “It’s a bit rich because if we didn’t have the last 14 years, let alone the damage to the economy, the lack of growth in the economy which has hit people in their pockets as well as our public services, then we wouldn’t have had the Conservatives wiped out in the South West. The country has given its verdict on the Conservatives.
“People know the country has been left with promises that could not be delivered. That’s fundamentally dishonest and we will be honest with people about it.
“The NHS is in a shocking state. That is what we’re looking at. You had 14 years to do something about health services in South Gloucestershire and it didn’t happen.”
Cllr Bromiley asked the council’s Lib Dem/Labour administration at a meeting of cabinet on Monday, October 7, how it was trying to ensure the Department of Health and Social Care would still provide the funding for the health centre. Council leader Cllr Maggie Tyrrell (Lib Dem, Thornbury) said her group still hoped and expected the project to go ahead.
She said: “The demolition of the hospital is in for a planning application now. We are progressing, we are doing our bit to make sure it happens but, as far as the funding stream, we will have to wait and hope and lobby for that to be confirmed.”
Cabinet member for corporate resources Cllr Adam Monk (Labour, Filton ) told the meeting that they were still working with Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB), which commissions local health services, to develop a business case for the health centre. He said: “At this stage we have no reason to believe it’s not proceeding but it’s a new government just about to do a new Budget so I suppose there is always uncertainty, but from our comms with the ICB, all systems are go.”
The council and the ICB announced a scaled-back proposed redevelopment earlier this year following three decades of delays and setbacks which, along with high inflation, mean the £14.4million funding will no longer stretch as far as originally hoped. The initial plan was for three GP surgeries, hospital beds, care home beds, rehabilitation services, extra care and an outpatients unit.
Now there will be only two GP surgeries – Severn View Family Practice and Streamside Surgery which are relocating from their existing buildings – with 24 consulting rooms, three treatment rooms, two blood sample rooms and another for virtual consultations. The proposals also include 75 extra care beds for elderly people.
Thornbury Hospital has been empty since closing in 2019. The council bought the site from the NHS in 2022. If the government confirms the funding, the earliest move-in date would be autumn 2026.