Sully Hospital up for sale

The hospital was considered for an asylum seekers' centre

A former psychiatric hospital rejected as a centre to house asylum seekers is back on the market.

Sully Hospital, in the Vale of Glamorgan, closed three years ago and has remained empty ever since.

The Home Office had expressed an interest in the building but earlier this year decided against using the centre for up to 750 asylum seekers.

Now Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, which owns the site, has opened up the site to offers from developers.

There is still an incinerator used to dispose of medical waste on the site, but the old hospital is expected to be converted to flats nevertheless.

Sanatorium

Developers have until 3 July to place bids for the Grade II listed building, which started life as a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1936.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: "A planning brief, permitting residential development, has been agreed with the local authority."

"The incinerator on the site belongs to waste disposal company Dalkia, which has a contract with the trust.

"Any discussion about the incinerator will need to be the subject of negotiation between Dalkia and potential developers of the site, and will not involve the trust."

The incinerator is used to dispose of medical waste from hospitals including others run by the trust such as the University Hospital of Wales and Llandough.

Pressure

Sully residents had campaigned against the use of the site as an asylum centre and welcomed the Home Office's decision to abandon its plan to convert the hospital.

They were worried that the number of people involved could put undue pressure on local facilities.

Councillor Anthony Earnest previously told BBC News Online he did not think the site would have provided a decent standard of living for people placed there.