Developers given 18-month extension to finalise the hospital’s siting, external appearance and landscaping
AN 18-MONTH extension for the submission of the final details of the new Velindre Cancer Centre in Whitchurch has been approved by Cardiff Council’s planning committee.
The developers requested that the deadline be extended because of Covid restrictions. This was considered by the planning committee as a “non-material amendment” at its meeting on Wednesday.
The reserved matters, relating to the cancer centre’s siting, external appearance and landscaping, must now be submitted by September 27, 2022.
Construction must commence by March 27, 2023 – five years after the proposals were approved on March 27, 2018. The cancer centre is expected to open in 2024.
It will be built on Whitchurch’s Northern Meadows, just north of Velindre’s existing facility. It will be able to treat 8,500 patients and offer 160,000 appointments per year.
Concerns have been raised about the site’s environmental impact by Save the Northern Meadows, a campaign group protesting against the site’s proposed location. There is also a clinical argument against the development.
In September, 57 health professionals wrote to Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething calling for an independent review, which led to Velindre University NHS Trust commissioning advice from the Nuffield Trust.
On December 1, 2020, the Nuffield Trust published its report, which recognised the need to replace the existing Velindre Cancer Centre and found the model proposed by Velindre “represents a reasonable way forward” as long as “some important changes are made to the way services are delivered”.
In response to the concerns raised at the planning meeting, planning officer Justin Jones said: “While the Nuffield Report raises a number of points, those are not planning-related. They relate to the cancer model, and it’s for the Welsh Government and Velindre to address those points.
“While we have a duty to consider those points raised by local views, the duty must be to consider it on its planning merits. Objections or support must be based on planning considerations.”
Mr Jones said that the outline application, which was granted on March 27, 2018, had considered ecological and air quality concerns, so those matters were not up for discussion on Wednesday.
In the Planning Committee meeting, Whitchurch and Tongwnlais councillor Mike Jones-Pritchard said: “There are a number of obstacles to this project. The business case has still not been signed off, The Nuffield Trust advice isn’t clear-cut and there’s a weight of clinical opinion contained in another letter to the health minister.
“We think this project needs to be paused. This isn’t an orderly delivery anymore. There’s too much shift and too much movement, and too much unknown.
“An objective view in the interests of the public and the environment at this point in time would be to refuse this application.”
The application received 320 letters of support, many of which came from outside of Cardiff and were from users or supporters of Velindre Cancer Centre.
There were 101 letters of objection, including from Whitchurch and Tongwynlais Councillors Mia Rees, Linda Morgan and Mike Phillips.
A petition objecting to the application, which received 431 signatures, was submitted by Save the Northern Meadows.
This objected to the application on the ground that its “vague iterations regarding Covid” were not sufficient for requesting the extension. It also cited a lack of community consultation and the “significant changes” advised by the Nuffield Trust which they say makes the proposal approved in 2018 “unworkable.”
The petition’s creators did not have the right to speak at the meeting because there was no postal or email address attached to the petition.
