Campaigners fighting to retain the site of the former Fenwick hospital at Pikes Hill, Lyndhurst, for the community left ‘disappointed’ with NHS decision to auction it for £850K

THE site of a former community hospital in Lyndhurst is to be sold next month for £850,000, leaving campaigners who tried to retain it for locals “disappointed”.

As reported in the A&T, the former Fenwick Hospital at Pikes Hill, which had been latterly used as a health and wellbeing centre by Social Care in Action (SCiA) since 2008, is being sold by the NHS.

The League of Friends of Fenwick Hospital (LoFF) had hoped to secure the site as a community asset and had the backing of New Forest East MP, Sir Julian Lewis.

It argued the site should be preserved for the village amid legal claims it was left to the people of Lyndhurst by builder George John Fenwick.

Sir Julian even urged government health secretary Steve Barclay to delay the site’s original auction date to clarify its legal ownership.

The pleas were unsuccessful and the NHS has now set a date of 19th September for its public auction, with a price of £850,000.

LoFF chairman, George Dibben, told the A&T it had been offered first refusal to buy the land, but said it was not financially possible for the group.

He said: “Sadly, we do not have the funds to purchase the site at this price.

“We will not take part in the auction, but hope that we will be able to work with whoever buys the site to agree a way in which the hospital building can be preserved for the benefit of the people of Lyndhurst.”

He added LoFF trustees expressed their “regret” at the decision as they felt without sight of the original Deed of Gift they were unable to establish a sufficient legal basis to challenge the NHS’s argument that it had the right to sell the site.

A spokesman for Lyndhurst Parish Council, which had joined the campaign to save the facility, told the A&T: “We are disappointed that the NHS is not willing to do the honourable thing by returning the site to the people of Lyndhurst.

“LoFF has our full support and we hope that any potential developer will understand the strength of feeling among Lyndhurst residents, and will be willing to work with LoFF to secure a future for the hospital building that benefits the Lyndhurst community.”