By Richard Evans

Copyright dailypost

A Denbighshire committee was updated on the early challenges facing the construction company redeveloping the former North Wales Hospital in Denbigh. At Denbighshire Council’s partnership scrutiny committee, councillors were updated on progress of the North Wales Regional Partnership Board (NWRPB) and its annual report.

Amongst the discussions was the future of the now derelict North Wales Hospital, which has been empty since 1996. The NWRP and council are spearheading the multi-million-pound redevelopment of the site, which will include as many as 300 new homes and business units.

But councillors were told that rare species, such as roosting bats, and potential asbestos contamination in underground tunnels were slowing progress. Denbighshire Council’s cabinet rubberstamped the first phase of the £107m redevelopment of the former North Wales Hospital in January. Sign up for the North Wales Live newslettersent twice daily to your inbox.

Costing a total of £107m, the redevelopment of the site is expected to take 12 years to complete. Phase one of the scheme includes demolitions and site remediation works, upgrading utilities, and the establishment of bio habitat infrastructure as well as a construction skills centre.

David Matthews is the land and property programme manager for the NWRPB and explained at the meeting. “It is fair to say that this has proved a challenging project for all parties,” he said. “I think the council and Jones Brothers would be the first to say it’s not an easy project, but we are making progress.

“We’re having regular meetings with ourselves. We’ve got a good working relationship with both Jones Brothers and the council officers. Actual works on site have commenced. The council and Jones Brothers are delivering a package of ecological mitigation measures.

“As you can imagine, on a site where mother nature has effectively taken over for a good 30 years, there is more or less every rare species on the planet in there, as far as I can tell. So we are dealing with things like bats and so on on the site. We’ve got to do it in a particular way as well, so those works are ongoing now. They started at the end of July. They are making good progress.”

He then explained “early-stage site clearance, demolition works, and remediation works” would follow in late 2025 into early 2026, but said the work needed to be carried out carefully.

“There is an area of heating tunnels underneath the actual building, and a lot of pipes under there were heating pipes lagged with asbestos,” he said. “There is a substantial amount of asbestos contamination in these tunnels. At the same time, there are also roosting bats. So we’ve got the mitigation measures that we have to do in terms of protecting the bats that are roosting, but at the same time ensuring that the asbestos can be safely removed.”

Denbighshire bought the site using a compulsory purchase order in 2018. Considered a project of regional significance, funding for the scheme is coming from UK Government and private investment.

Council leader Cllr Jason McLellan said: “I want to assure the committee today that it is an absolute priority because not only is this important for the region – and the construction phase will bring many, many jobs to the area – I appreciate it is important for Denbigh as a town for the future, for the economic prosperity it can bring, the jobs it can bring, but also, if I may, the culture and history of Denbigh.”

He added: “It is a site which is really important, and we are working flat out. I’m working flat out, to make sure we move this project forward. It is really, really important locally and regionally.”

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