People living near the former Passmore Edwards Hospital in Liskeard are appealing to its owners to think again over its planned demolition. Caradon District Council's planners are due in the New Year to consider an application from the North and East Cornwall Primary Care Trust for outline permission to demolish the building in Barras Place and to redevelop it for residential purposes. The plans indicate that 37 one and two-bedroom homes could be built on the site of the hospital which closed in October 2002 and was replaced by the Liskeard Community Hospital two years later. People living near the old hospital, which opened as the Liskeard Cottage Hospital in 1897, say they face being overlooked and other problems as a result of the PCT's plans for the site and there are also concerns over the loss of one of the town's historic buildings.
Demolished Gordon Strudwick lives in nearby Pendean Close and says he believes that if the demolition goes ahead it could be the first building endowed by the Victorian philanthropist John Passmore Edwards to be demolished in the county, setting a precedent for others in the future. 'Passmore Edwards was born in Cornwall and during a very succvessful life provided over 70 buildings for the good of local residents,' he explained. 'This wonderful legacy is about to have the first of its lovely buildings destroyed so that the Primary Care Trust can obtain 'best value' from the site.' Mr Strudwick said that while he and othert objectors accept that the site must be developed, the old hospital building could be preserved through use as a care home or day centre for the elderly, with warden controlled accommodation for the elderly on the remainder of the site.