An application has been submitted to demolish Ysbyty Minffordd in Bangor, after fire safety experts deemed the building to be unsafe and police warned it had become a magnet for anti social behaviour, drug taking and prostitution.
The site is owned by Rushcliffe Care Ltd and they are the applicant for the demolition. In 2011 plans were approved to convert the former hospital into a 36-bed specialist care facility, with the promise of creating up to 100 jobs, however, the site was placed for sale in 2017 with a £400,000 asking price, with the approved planning permission having now expired.
A report form the North Wales Arson Reduction Team found that the site is being used by youths from as far away as Holywell and police were concerned that the buildings were known to be a meeting a place for drug dealers. Police had also identified the buildings were being used by prostitutes.
Drug paraphernalia was found and a number of homeless people were found to be using the site. The report said that all the buildings were unsafe with cement bonded asbestos also on site. Police are concerned that a youth may be seriously hurt as a consequence of using the buildings.
Recent activity at the site has raised serious concerns in the local community and police had issued warnings to local schools and parents.
The planning statement said: “The buildings on the site still remain and have been the subject of unauthorised trespass on multiple occasions. The trespass has included damage to the buildings, theft of materials from the site and fly tipping.
“The buildings and the activities associated with the trespass are of serious concern to the police and the local community. The concerns include potential harm to the trespassers as the buildings structural stability cannot be guaranteed, the risk of exposure to asbestos containing materials and arson related hazards. Demolition of the buildings and site clearance would appear to the solution of the problems outlined above.”
The hospital was built in 1895 in the aftermath of the 1882 typhoid epidemic that accounted for 42 deaths around the Bangor area. The hospital included a number of isolation wards.
In recent years, Minffordd became a community hospital, and also housed the Gwynedd Alzheimers Society. After a lengthy public consultation, it closed in 2006.
Both the arson reduction team and police support the application to demolish the site. If the demolition application is approved it is likely to take place on 30th April 2019.
