Next Steps on Bro Ddyfi Community Hospital

Thank you for your continued support for our exciting plans for the redevelopment of Bro Ddyfi Community Hospital.

The redevelopment of the Hospital remains a key priority for Powys Teaching Health Board. The scheme offers an exciting opportunity to establish Bro Ddyfi Community Hospital as an integrated health and well-being facility for the local community. It will provide a base for health, local authority and third sector teams that will help these teams to work together in a community ‘hub’ that improves access to health and social care, wellbeing, prevention and health promotion facilities for Machynlleth and the Dyfi Valley.

As you will be aware, we were successful in receiving full planning permission last year. However, this permission included a number of changes to the original scheme including improvements to the junction between the hospital and the A489 trunk road.

Following full planning permission we began work on updating our Full Business Case for re-submission to Welsh Government, as well as on a revised application for Conservation Area Consent to reflect the planning permission condition for the additional junction and highways work.

With this work well under way, unfortunately the world faced new challenges from Coronavirus (COVID-19). We and our commercial partners have faced a significant impact from Coronavirus, which has in turn affected the progress on redevelopment of Bro Ddyfi Community Hospital.

Important progress continues to be made:

• Willmott Dixon has been secured through the Major Works Scape framework as our contractor for the current phase of work.
• Our contractor and design teams have been able to re-commence, and are fully engaged in support of the Health Board to drive progress on the project.
• Detailed design proposals for the improvement works to the junction between the hospital and the A489 trunk road have been developed. Regular discussions have taken place with Welsh Government Highways who have been supportive of these proposals.
• A revised application for Conservation Area Consent has been submitted to Powys County Council. This reflects some design improvements for the rear elevation of the hospital, and will be updated to reflect the additional junction and highways work.
• This detailed design phase has also given PTHB the opportunity to review the proposals and make further improvements/enhancements in terms of buildability, carbon reduction and has enabled us to incorporate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic
• Tender prices are being sought for the construction phase, although the impact of COVID-19 on the construction market is affecting the timescales for this. We also anticipate that the costs will be higher than originally planned due to the additional junction and highways work, the need for all works to be compliant with social distancing, and other changes since Outline Business Case.

We are also updating the Full Business Case (FBC), which will include revised costs for the scheme. We anticipate that this will be submitted to Welsh Government by Autumn 2020. Subject to approval of the business case and funding, we aim to begin on site in early 2021.

We share your disappointment that the response to the global pandemic of COVID-19 has understandably affected the timescale for this important project in recent months, and we look forward to working with you to take forward these plans.

Yours sincerely

Hayley Thomas, Director of Planning and Performance, Powys Teaching Health Board