PLANNING chiefs have given the go-ahead for a former warehouse building at Warrington to be converted to a specialist ambulance station.
The development at the Gemini Business Park in Charon Way, Warrington will serve neonatal units across the North West for new born babies who are ill or have been born prematurely.
No external changes are proposed to the warehouse building or the area surrounding the building including the parking.
Staff facilities will include rest spaces, washing facilities and office/admin rooms for ambulance staff. The proposal will mean the facilities can provide medical or health services to aid the work of the North-West neo-natal services.
The warehouse was only completed last year. It is accessed from Apollo Park, leading from Junction 8 from the M62 and Burtonwood Road. This provides the ambulance services with high-quality access to Warrington, Manchester, Liverpool and the greater Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester area in an emergency.
The location of the development is said to be ideal for the proposed use as it provides excellent links via the motorway network to Merseyside and Greater Manchester and via Burtonwood Road to the wider Cheshire area. This will help the neo-natal ambulance services reach patients throughout the North West quickly and efficiently.
The scheme does not involve any changes to the external appearance of the building, nor to the area surrounding the building. There will be sufficient parking spaces for the number of ambulances and staff using the hub at any one given time. The 19 existing car parking spaces will be retained (including two electronic charging spaces and one disabled) and there will be four proposed internal ambulance bays and two external ambulance bays.
The ambulances from the hub will be out of the area for most of the day, while on shifts, and will return for shift changes and supplies periodically. The number of traffic movements will be modest given this fact and the limited number of ambulances and staff and no more than would be expected for the current storage and distribution use of the site.
