A HOUSE in Shaftesbury could soon be helping care for mental health patients after a planning application was submitted.

The property, in Abbey Walk, has been purchased by the Friends of Westminster Memorial Hospital and is set for use by the mental health community team to both see patients and act as a team base.

In September last year, a planning application to adapt the building, which neighbours the hospital site, for use as medical facilities was approved by Dorset Council.

However, the group has now handed in an amended proposal due to spiralling costs.

“Since the previous planning consent was granted, detailed design work continued and a tender process undertaken,” the application said.

“The result of the tender process, combined with the significant increase in construction costs over the past 12 months, resulted in the need for a drastic value engineering exercise, as the consented design was clearly financially unsustainable.”

Now, plans for a single-storey extension to the rear of the four-bedroom property have been submitted.

“Shaftesbury Adult Community Mental Health Services are currently based in rented rooms on the first floor of Abbeyview Medical Centre,” it went on.

“Their present accommodation is too small and room sizes, access for patients and staff, is severely sub-standard.”

It said the move to Abbey Walk would give the team space, as well as providing clinical accommodation.

“The building will provide a range of consulting rooms for a range of psychological therapies and treatments,” it added.

“In addition, the mental health team and admin function will be based in the building and will run outreach services into the community from here.”

The new centre would ‘enhance the clinical service to the wider population in an appropriate setting’.

A ‘small number of patients’ would arrive at the property for consultations, the application said, with no weekend or evening working.

For more details, and to comment on the plans, log on to www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk and search for application reference P/FUL/2023/03980.