THE ROW over the lease of land at the Holme Valley Memorial Hospital refuses to die down as plans for the third phase of work on the site are revealed.

Amid the ongoing parking quarrel, recently submitted blueprints for a 15 bed close-care home for the disabled have re-ignited public fury over the way the lease was handled, more than seven years after the sale was completed.

Last year councillors claimed that a sheltered housing scheme on the site seemed more like a luxury apartment development and said they would have objected to the sell off if they had realised there would not be a permanent warden on site.

And at this month’s Holme Valley South Area Committee meeting, news of the close-care development for the Hollybank Trust sparked anger with many members of the public and local councillors, with several standing up to voice their concerns at both the handling of the affair by Kirklees PCT and the way in which Conroy Brook had used the site.

Clr Nigel Patrick, Holme Valley Area Committee chairman, said: “The NHS have flogged that land off for private use without giving any thought on the impact to the current use.

“There’s not enough room for all those things on that site.”

And Clr Patrick and his colleagues welcomed the idea of an underground parking for the latest development, put forward by a member of the public.

Holmfirth GP, Dr Yusuf Shamsee, asked if the PCT had considered the impact on local doctors of another specialised care-home.

He said: “How are the patients of Hollybank going to get the correct levels of specialised care from local doctors? Are the PCT going to give any extra resources to us?”

But the Kirklees PCT boss, Mike Potts, said that the issue of the lease was dead and it was not the PCT’s concern. “It’s not a PCT facility,” he said. “They can build whatever they like.”

Holme Valley Parish councillor, Judith Roberts, who had also previously told the Express & Chronicle that she would have objected to the sheltered housing development if she had realised there would be no warden, said she was angry with the way the PCT had handled the lease of the land.

“One or two people wanted to know where the money from the lease had gone to and why didn’t it come back to the Holme Valley?” she said.

But a statement from Conroy Brook said plans for the site had gained the full support of Kirklees planners and highways.

It said: “We purchased the site by open tender from the NHS Trust who manage the site. At that time, we undertook to provide a 60 bed care home, a sheltered housing scheme and a close care unit. The care home opened in 2004 and is full with a waiting list. In 2005 the care home was voted ‘Best new care home’ nationwide’.”

The statement added that the sheltered housing scheme had been built to the highest possible standards and was due to open in February, and says the final phase, 15 close care units for disabled young people, were exactly what was agreed when the site was purchased.

DR SHAMSEE“How are the patients of Hollybank going to get the correct levels of care from local doctors?”