Warneford Park Pre-planning application consultation

Aerial image of the Warneford hospital

Thank you

We would like to thank everyone for your interest and involvement in the consultation activity on the plans for Warneford Park.

Please note this consultation activity is now CLOSED.

The final report on the stage two engagement is now available to download and read.

Further information regarding the planning application submission will be shared on the Warneford Park website as the plans progress.


Background

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is working in partnership with the University of Oxford and a partner on plans to develop a major brain health research and innovation campus at the Warneford Hospital site. This will include:

  • a new mental health hospital, offering the best treatment, care, and therapeutic environment.
  • a modern scientific facility for the world-leading brain research taking place at the University of Oxford, with additional space for biotech, pharmaceutical and start-up companies.
  • a new post-graduate college for the University of Oxford focused on medical sciences, bio-engineering and related disciplines.

Informing and involving the public about our plans is hugely important and since July 2024 we have carried out extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and conducted two pre-planning application public consultations.

In the spring of 2025 we will submit our formal planning application to Oxford City Council for consideration.


Public consultation activity

Group of people sharing feedback

First consultation

We held our first public consultation in September 2024 on our plans for Warneford Park. This included public drop-in exhibition events, a survey, question and answers, a webinar, stakeholder meetings and more. Your feedback gave us rich and helpful insights into how we move forward with our plans and designs. Following the consultation, we published an engagement report which summarises the key feedback, ideas and suggestions received from everyone who took part.


Second consultation

We continued to develop and revise our proposals taking into account your feedback from the first consultation and from 2 December 2024 to 10 January 2025 we held a second public consultation to present our revised plans in more detail and to once again hear your views.

Following the consultation, we published an engagement report which summarises the key feedback, ideas and suggestions received from everyone who took part.


Supporting resources

Supporting resources for our consultations, including proposed plans and diagrams, hard copies of surveys, online questions and answers and a series of videos across a variety of topics remain on this site for you to use.


Keeping up to date

Sign up to our newsletter to keep informed and updated on progress of the plans for Warneford Park.

Thank you

We would like to thank everyone for your interest and involvement in the consultation activity on the plans for Warneford Park.

Please note this consultation activity is now CLOSED.

The final report on the stage two engagement is now available to download and read.

Further information regarding the planning application submission will be shared on the Warneford Park website as the plans progress.


Background

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is working in partnership with the University of Oxford and a partner on plans to develop a major brain health research and innovation campus at the Warneford Hospital site. This will include:

  • a new mental health hospital, offering the best treatment, care, and therapeutic environment.
  • a modern scientific facility for the world-leading brain research taking place at the University of Oxford, with additional space for biotech, pharmaceutical and start-up companies.
  • a new post-graduate college for the University of Oxford focused on medical sciences, bio-engineering and related disciplines.

Informing and involving the public about our plans is hugely important and since July 2024 we have carried out extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and conducted two pre-planning application public consultations.

In the spring of 2025 we will submit our formal planning application to Oxford City Council for consideration.


Public consultation activity

Group of people sharing feedback

First consultation

We held our first public consultation in September 2024 on our plans for Warneford Park. This included public drop-in exhibition events, a survey, question and answers, a webinar, stakeholder meetings and more. Your feedback gave us rich and helpful insights into how we move forward with our plans and designs. Following the consultation, we published an engagement report which summarises the key feedback, ideas and suggestions received from everyone who took part.


Second consultation

We continued to develop and revise our proposals taking into account your feedback from the first consultation and from 2 December 2024 to 10 January 2025 we held a second public consultation to present our revised plans in more detail and to once again hear your views.

Following the consultation, we published an engagement report which summarises the key feedback, ideas and suggestions received from everyone who took part.


Supporting resources

Supporting resources for our consultations, including proposed plans and diagrams, hard copies of surveys, online questions and answers and a series of videos across a variety of topics remain on this site for you to use.


Keeping up to date

Sign up to our newsletter to keep informed and updated on progress of the plans for Warneford Park.

CLOSED: This section is now closed for new questions.

Questions and answers about the proposals for the development of the Warneford site are shown in this section. 

You can search the questions and answers using the search box or by clicking on the relevant category label below.

Please note: This section is now closed for new questions. Your questions from the second consultation will be answered shortly and added to this page.


  • Why are there not going to be more hospital beds than currently provided?

    5 months ago

    We are confident that the beds will be sufficient for the populations needs. A bed modelling exercise was undertaken and concluded that the need for beds did not increase significantly over the next 10 years for the general adult population. We expect a modest rise within the older adult population. However, we also expect the benefits of a new purpose-built facility, with a greater focus on therapy and recovery, to further reduce the average length of stay of our inpatients. As a result of patients spending less time in hospital, capacity will become available to meet the current and future population need. Any modelling into the future has uncertainty and so we have built additional expansion space into the hospital in case it is required.

    patient services,proposed plans
    patient services proposed plans

  • Where is the new Warneford park going to be, and will the development take into consideration not everyone drives or has access to a car.Oxford is completely overrun by cars. Why is the hospital having to move when there could possibly be new building on the current site, instead of yet again Oxford student housing taking priority.

    lsa asked 7 months ago

    Warneford Park will be the site where the existing Warneford Hospital is located. In fact the new hospital will be built on the same site. We are planning the new development with the expectation that two thirds of people will travel to the site using public transport, on foot or by bicycle. This means that it will have improved facilities for cyclists and improvements in the local area for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.

  • Will there be any motorcycle/moped parking available? There are quite few staff that ride in, particularly in the warmer months.

    Biker asked 4 months ago

    To Be Answered

    parking
    parking

  • Given it's size will there be any provision of beds in the research centre for patients?

    L B asked 5 months ago

    No, there will not be facilities for patients in the research centre. It will be used by the University’s Department of Psychiatry and private sector companies conducting research in related fields.

  • Will the new hospital have the capacity to absorb the facilities and services at Littlemore thereby bringing efficiencies and economies of scale, and freeing up that site for disposal or alternative NHS use?

    Mike R asked 6 months ago

    The new hospital will have capacity for us to relocate the two adult wards from Littlemore. Options are currently being considered for what will happen to the vacated wards at Littlemore.

  • Will the new facilities offer therapy as well as intervention via medicines? Having had two members of my family in the Warneford, the lack of trauma therapy, psychology or psychotherapy and reliance on medicine worries me. It concerns me that the funding appears to focus on pharmaceutical interventions.

    CI asked 6 months ago

    Access to therapeutic activities will be available on all inpatient units.  This will include talking based interventions as well as pharmacology (medication-based treatments). Having available space to provide a range of therapeutic interventions will ensure that active care and treatment is available to all inpatients. The environment will afford the ability to provide different therapies and activities simultaneously.

    patient services
    patient services

  • What will be the impact of more people/families—competition for buses/ infrastructure on local neighbourhoods?

    5 months ago

    A detailed Transport Assessment will form part of the planning application responding to the challenges of the impact on the local infrastructure. This will include detail about how the local infrastructure will be improved as a result of the development.

    transport
    transport

  • What is your evidence to support the claim that more patients/visitors will use public transport to access the hospital than formerly?

    Made asked 4 months ago
    Car parking will be limited on-site to those with permits and some parking reserved for visitors. A suite of sustainable intervention measures will therefore be brought forward by the development, the City council and County council to encourage the uptake of sustainable travel and discourage the use of private car, including:
    -    Express shuttle bus services from local park and ride sites to Oxford Health Trust sites 
    -    Exploring provision of new or extended bus services with OCC and Oxford Bus group
    -    Significant monetary contributions to improve bus services in agreement with OCC
    -    Limiting available car parking on-site and producing a car park management plan to ensure its operation
    -    Forthcoming Oxford traffic filter scheme
    -    Binding mode share targets delivered through a robust Travel Plan
    The Transport Strategy is being developed in accordance with National policy and Oxfordshire County Council guidance.
    transport
    transport

  • Why isn't the value of releasing yet more land and buildings to Oxford University sufficient to fully fund the Oxford Health new Inpatient Hospital in entirety without having to also rely on funding from the taxpayer and the overstretched Health Budget? So often public bodies fail to secure the true value of their assets in the commercial marketplace.

    RJP asked 6 months ago

    The Trust will be ensuring that it gets best value from the land sale. To do this the land will be valued nearer to the time of sale to establish the current market price. At current market prices the proceeds from the land sale would be insufficient to fund the construction of the new hospital and so the Trust is seeking government funding as well.

  • Will the development to contribute to CIL in accordance with the relevant regulations and calculations?

    6 months ago
    Yes, the development will contribute to CIL in accordance with the relevant regulations.
    Further information on how the Headington Forum utilise CIL funding can be found here http://headingtonplan.org.uk/index.php/cil-funding/
Page last updated: 07 Feb 2025, 10:45 AM