Work on Airedale Hospital rebuild likely to start in 2028

Friday, 21 February 2025 15:16

By Chris Young, Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors have been told that the rebuild of Airedale Hospital could begin in 2028, and may cost up to £1.5 billion.

And there has been a call to use local labour to build the new hospital – which is likely to be one of the biggest developments in the District in the coming years.

Airedale Hospital in Steeton is in a poor state, with 83 per cent of the building constructed of RAAC concrete.

After years of campaigning, a rebuild of the hospital was agreed as part of the Government’s New Hospital programme.

The rebuild was confirmed by Government earlier this year – with Airedale selected as one of the first wave of hospital rebuild that would begin between 2025 and 2030.

At a meeting of Bradford Council’s Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, members were given an update on the rebuild.

A report to the committee said: “A capital funding envelope of between £1 and £1.5 billion has been confirmed, recognising the need to completely rebuild the hospital.

“Building the new hospital will be complex and come with considerable challenges. We need to make sure services remain safe and can continue effectively during construction.”

Before the rebuild starts there will need to be preliminary works to the site, including a new secondary vehicular access from Skipton Road and construction of a multi-storey carpark to improve parking facilities for patients, visitors and staff while the new hospital is being built.

At the meeting Stuart Shaw, Director of Strategy, Planning and Partnerships at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The current hospital is a 1960s build, it is two storeys over a huge space, with long corridors connecting different buildings.

“The new build will be more compact.”

Councillor Alun Griffiths (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) said: “You’ll be building up rather than out?”

He replied: “It will be a taller building, more than two storeys.”

Councillors were told the new hospital would have a similar number of beds to the current hospital.

Cllr Griffiths added: “You’ll be working to a specification that is nationally mandated – are you confident there will be no major issues with that?”

Mr Shaw replied: “From what we know, yes.”

Councillor Paul Sullivan (Cons, Bingley Rural) wanted to know more about the time frame, asking: “When are we guaranteed to have a nice new hospital?”

Mr Shaw said: “There is a 2028 start date. Until we’ve spoken to Government it would be wrong to say when it would be completed.”

Councillor Paul Godwin (Lab, Keighley West) used to work at Airedale, and said: “I would like to see as much local labour used to build the hospital as possible. I hope we don’t look at bringing in cheap labour from elsewhere, because local people have a commitment to their area.”

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