Westhulme hospital site is cleared

DEMOLITION has begun at Oldham’s former Westhulme hospital site, but the future use of the 135-year-old site remains uncertain.

An option is car parking for the Royal Oldham Hospital, although the site has outline planning consent for housing.

Since closing as a hospital, Westhulme has served as headquarters for a number of health-related organisations — Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the former Oldham Primary Care Trust, Oldham NHS Trust and West Pennine Health Authority. Almost a quarter of the site was swallowed up when Chadderton Way was built in the 1980s.