Start date confirmed for Bridgwater's new social care academy

The former Bridgwater Community Hospital on Salmon Parade in Bridgwater
-Credit:Hill Reading Architects


Work on Bridgwater's new health and social care academy will begin by the autumn of 2025, Somerset Council has promised. The council secured £19.7m from the government's levelling up fund in January 2023 to create the new academy at the former community hospital site on Salmon Parade, with a satellite site at the Seahorse Resource Centre in Minehead.

The funding has to be spent in its entirely by the end of March 2026, with the council having to fit the project around the delivery of the Celebration Mile and other regeneration work taking place in and around Bridgwater. The council has now promised that a formal planning application for the new facility will be made public in a matter of weeks, with construction expected to begin in the autumn.

A spokesman said: "The Somerset health and care academy is a partnership Programme, and its major partners – Somerset Council, the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, and the NHS Somerset integrated care board – are fully committed to its continuing development."

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Of the £19.7m originally provided by the recently-renamed Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), around £3.3m has already been spent, either on delivering the Minehead satellite site (near the town's new police station) or carrying out design and remedial work on the Bridgwater site.

Around 2,270 sq m of training space will eventually be provided across the two sites, along with 860 sq m of key worker and trainee accommodation and 400 sq m of commercial office or business space. A spokesman said: "£16.6m of the levelling up fund grant currently remains unspent, but we expect this to be fully utilised, with major expenditure to be committed from the autumn of 2025.

The Seahorse Resource Centre on Stephenson Road in Minehead
The Seahorse Resource Centre on Stephenson Road in Minehead -Credit:Daniel Mumby

"A total of £278,400 of the grant has been spent delivering the Minehead satellite site so far. The satellite site is planning to be open in February, with the project team just finalising the logistics to ensure the facility is fully operational."

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The council has struggled to deliver numerous regeneration projects across multiple towns in Somerset with its limited resources - a situation being exacerbated by its ongoing transformation programme. Officers stated in December 2024 that they may seek an extension from MHCLG regarding a separate £20m levelling up grant, intended to regenerate the Tonedale Mill and Tone Works sites on the northern edge of Wellington.

A spokesman said: "The Bridgwater academy project is currently waiting for board approvals to submit the shared scheme into the pre-application process. This is being targeted to be done within the next week.

"Subject to feedback received from planning, the full application would look to follow submission approximately four weeks later, for a 16-week decision process for the listed application. Work should commence within the autumn of 2025."

The section of Salmon Parade between Eastover and the A38 Broadway (which includes the hospital site) is included within the delivery of the Celebration Mile regeneration scheme, which is being funded by £9m within the Bridgwater town deal. The council confirmed in August 2024 that it would be delaying this section of the Celebration Mile until the academy had been completed - with all funds associated with the town deal needing to be spent by March 2026.

A spokesman said: "We are still committed to delivering the Salmon Parade improvements that are part of the Celebration Mile. We will apportion the Salmon Parade works to coincide with the construction taking place at the former Bridgwater hospital."