Setback for infirmary campaigners

Campaigners have encountered a setback in their fight to preserve a landmark hospital building.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust has sold the former North Riding Infirmary site to supermarket chain Aldi, saying it had to get the best value for it.

A number of applications by the chain to build a supermarket on the site have been turned down.

Campaigners want to retain the building and say there are alternative proposals which would do so.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust director of planning Jill Moulton said the site had been on the open market since 2001 and they had chosen the best bid.

She said: "Since then we have followed all the rules and regulations that apply to NHS bodies about how we handle sales and we have continued to take legal advice, other professional advice about that sale.

'Raises concerns'

"And we have in the end to determine how we get best value for the sale of that site and abide with the regulations that we have to follow and I am confident that we have done that."

The North Riding Infirmary has been empty for more than two years after services were transferred to the James Cook University Hospital.

Councillor Barry Coppinger, who has been campaigning to save the building, said: "The Trust have moved from a situation where they had a conditional agreement with Aldi to one where the site now appears to have been passed over to Aldi with a payment made.

"I think that raises concerns about how a public body like the Trust does business, particularly when we know that there are other developers committed to retaining the infirmary and committed to putting up the appropriate funds to do so."