Clr Christine Stanfield calls on Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust to remove ‘grim box’ from Lindley street

HOSPITAL bosses should remove their “grim box” from a Huddersfield street, according to a councillor.

The portable cabin was set up five years ago at Acre House Avenue in Lindley as a temporary measure to deal with staff overcrowding at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

But Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has contacted residents this month saying it plans to keep the temporary office in place for another year.

The cabin, which juts out into the residential street, houses 19 staff from the Children and AdolescentsŠ Mental Health Service (CAMHS).

Kirklees Council gave the trust permission to operate the temporary building for three years from 2006. Health bosses were granted one-year extensions in 2009 and 2010.

Now the trust has asked Kirklees for permission to stay at the site for another 12 months.

Clr Christine Stanfield believes it’s time for the cabin to go.

The Lindley Lib Dem said: “Residents are frustrated at the long-standing eyesore at Acre House Avenue.

“When the letter from West Yorkshire Group – planning and design consultants for the trust – dropped through their letterboxes, residents were left wonderingŠ how many more years this might continue.

“Residents are quite aware of the essential work done by CAMHS for the young people of Kirklees and understand that they need more space, but they feel that the trust has had five years to find alternative accommodation and should have spent that time planning.”

Clr Stanfield added that the building made Acre House Avenue much less attractive.

“The office extension is an ugly cabin, extending right to the pavement. There are no windows, only the fire escape jutting out from the end wall,” she said.

“Clearly the trust made no attempt to think how the building, which is ugly and intrusive,Šwould impact on the visual amenity of the avenue.

“If they had put a fence across the end of the building allowing access from the fire escape to the top of the avenue, it might have softened the outline of this grim box.”

A spokesman for the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust said: “The trust is working closely with Kirklees Children’s Services to jointly locate all our children’s services in Huddersfield, with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of our services.

“We have requested a further extension of our temporary planning permission to make sure that our long-term objectives for children’s services are done safely and in a well-structured way.”