HEALTH bosses marked the spot where a £9.6 million mental health hospital is to be built in Goosnargh, Preston.

The five-acre development on the former Whittingham Hospital site will feature almost 60 beds catering for medium secure and high dependency patients, and there could be new nursing posts to be filled as the unit expands. It is expected to open in Spring 1999.

Local residents will be able to use the facilities which include an all-weather football pitch, gym and occupational therapy workshops for art, pottery and photography.

The Langdale unit which currently houses mental health services will be demolished. It is among the last of Whittingham's remaining 120-year-old buildings.

The development has been funded by Government money to the Guild Community Healthcare NHS Trust which owns 35 acres of the Whittingham site.

John Harkin, the Trust's director of mental health services, said the development had taken years of planning. He said: "This investment is a big boost for Preston. At last we'll have purpose-built buildings for the service.

"The community has grown up around the hospital and is used to this sort of care on their doorstep."

Guild Trust chairman Patricia Diamond carried out the sod-cutting ceremony along with Professor Alasdair Breckenridge, chair of the North West's NHS Executive which owns the rest of the 240-acre site.

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