Plans for houses on former South Yorkshire hospital site set for green light

Mount Vernon Hospital in Worsbrough hospital was opened as a tuberculosis sanatorium in May 1915, and was the previous home of Samuel and Fanny Cooper – founders of the Cooper Gallery.

In 1961, the hospital was updated to care for 90 mostly geriatric patients, and new wards were opened in 1974, admitting patients from Lundwood and Kendray.

In 2002, wards began to close, and the hospital was fully closed in early 2018 and has since been demolished.

South West Yorkshire NHS Trust in conjunction with Orion Homes applied for permission to build a housing estate on the site in 2019.

However, a revised application has now been submitted to Barnsley Council’s planning board, to be decided on June 8.

The new application still includes 42 homes, but with more two bedroom properties and fewer three bedroomed houses.

According to the developer, the houses would be a mix of semi-detached and detached properties, all of two or two and a half storeys in height.

Three letters of support were lodged from members of the public, as well as 24 objections.

Objections have been made on the grounds lack of local infrastructure such as schools and GP surgeries, loss of trees, impact on privacy and heritage, property value reduction and “hazardous materials and smells”.

Three letters of support were received, all suggesting a sculpture related to a seamstress on the development should be installed, to “reflect the historic use or person of local interest at the site”.

The applicant has agreed to pay £242,176 for the community under a S106 agreement, as well as provide 10 per cent of the site as affordable houses.

The cash will be made up of £144,000 for education, £66,676 for public open spaces, £31,500 for sustainable travel, £25,287 for a play area, and £41,389 for “formal recreation”.

The plans have been recommended for approval.