Bexley Wing, St James's Hospital

Bam Construction Limited

As part of a programme of development of new clinical facilities, the trust procured a new oncology hospital at St. James's University Hospital under PFI. The development is the largest hospital of its kind in Europe.

Location: St James's University Hospital, Leeds
Status: Building complete and operational
Size: 67,500 sq m (730,000 sq ft)
Scale: Site

The key issues were:

Given the importance of the building to the city, we established a strong partnership working arrangement with the City Council, setting a work programme which delivered planning permissions linked to the PFI timetable. Two different outline applications were required for the building for the public sector comparator scheme, upon which the bidding process was based.

Given the prominence of the site and the scale of the building, urban design issues were of high importance and we prepared a robust case to support the approach which was supported by the council and CABE.

We advised the trust throughout bidder selection, commenting on the appropriateness of each bidder's planning strategy in relation to the outline permission and future reserved matters.

Following the appointment of Bovis Lendlease as preferred bidder, we continued to advise the trust in the reserved matters application and represented the trust in planning meetings with the council. The building was opened in January 2008 and is now fully operational as the Institute of Oncology serving the Yorkshire region.