The manager of a crumbling Oxfordshire psychiatric hospital has welcomed news of its future closure, writes Tim Hughes.

Fair Mile Hospital, in Cholsey, near Wallingford, will close in two years' time, following the approval of plans for its £30m replacement. Reading councillors have given hospital managers West Berkshire Priority Care Services NHS Trust outline permission to build a new state-of-the-art hospital on their site at prospect Park, Reading.

The 193-bed unit is expected to be completed by spring 2002, with Fair Mile closing around the same time. Health bosses claim the aging Victorian asylum is run-down and depressing and insist the purpose-built hospital will be better for patients and staff.

Roger Winter, general manager of Fair Mile Hospital, said: "I am extremely happy that we can now go ahead and build the new hospital which will meet the needs of our community in the future.

"There will be much better conditions for staff and patients than we can currently offer here." The Trust's communications manager Chris Birdsall said: "This heralds an important day for mental health care in south Oxfordshire.

"We are now in a position where we can make major strides in caring for people with mental health problems. We will be building the new hospital in a place that isn't remote, and where people will be able to get to more easily."

He added: "Job losses will be kept to an absolute minimum.

"Our intention is to re-deploy people as much as possible."

Story date: Friday 30 April

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