Grade II listed building opposite A&E to become flats

The building opposite Northampton General Hospital was a mental health facility

Plans to turn a Grade II listed building opposite a hospital's emergency department into 30 flats has been approved.

Spring Hill House, a former mental health facility in Northampton, will be part demolished and renovated.

West Northamptonshire Council gave planning permission to the proposals at a meeting on Thursday.

Applicant LG Properties Limited said it would bring the building into "a much needed use providing smaller residential units in a sustainable location".

The building was previously owned by St Andrews Healthcare and operated as a mental health residential unit, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Before that it was home to the Northampton High School for Girls which added a large two-storey extension to the site in the 1990s.

The building is on the same road at Northampton's A&E department

A spokesperson for LG Properties Limited told the planning committee meeting it could not be reused as a mental health facility "as it doesn't comply with the current standards and it has been vacant for a number of years".

"The proposal will reintroduce use to the whole of the site, preserving it for the future," they said.

The existing links between the Grade II villa and the more recent extension will be demolished to give more prominence to the listed building.

Wall "barriers" attached to the extension would also be removed to "soften the impact of the former health facility".

Some 38 parking spaces would be provided for the 30 flats, which falls below the adopted standard requiring 67 spaces, according to plans.

But the highways department raised no objections, citing a "sustainable location" close to the town centre.

It also added that many future residents would be expected to be employed at the hospital, given the proximity to the site.