Mental health unit may move to Town Hall

The Gloucester Centre in Orton Longueville, Peterborough, which is run by the  Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), will be turned into 123 new homes following the sale, which also includes a site in Cambridge.

The Gloucester Centre currently hosts a range of mental health community, social care and child health teams and the Trust’s Peterborough Recovery College - but it has now been sold to Homes England.

The health trust will stay in the Gloucester Centre for up to  18 months, while a suitable replacement site is found.

A spokesman for the trust said a number of sites were being looked at - including the Town Hall. He said: “We are currently exploring a range of options including working jointly with the councils to find local and suitable space.

“We are looking at options including the City Care Centre where we already host services and the Town Hall but it’s early days.”

The £20 million sale also includes The Ida Darwin site in Fulbourn, Cambridge.
The money raised from the sale of the two sites will allow the Trust, which provides mental health and community care, to move the services to more appropriate and modern facilities and to re-invest in its existing properties.

Both sites were originally developed in the 1960s, but many of the buildings are now no longer considered ‘fit for purpose’ and are increasingly costly for the Trust to maintain.

Outline planning permission had been granted for 203 new homes on the Ida Darwin site .