PLANNING bosses have given the green light for a new £750,000 building at Odiham Cottage Hospital.

Hart District Council was set to decline planning permission after the Odiham Cottage Hospital Charitable Trust refused to pay a £4,402 contribution towards transport improvements.

But at a planning committee meeting last week the trust agreed to pay the cash to fund road safety measures for neighbouring Buryfields Infant School.

Initially, the trust said it could not afford to hand over the cash, known as a Section 106 contribution, and that it should be exempt since it was a charity for the local community.

Hospital chiefs are now set to demolish the current outpatients’ building at the hospital site in Buryfields, Odiham, and replace it with a rehabilitation centre.

A major fundraising campaign is now expected to be launched to cover the costs of the building and the transport contribution.

Ginny East, secretary to the trustees, said: “We are very excited. Getting to this stage has taken months of work by a number of people especially the trustees.

“The agreement was that the £4,402 would actually be used for the school’s transport plan. On those grounds the trustees agreed to pay the contribution.”

Planning chiefs also accepted the design of the building’s roof, having initially raised objections. The majority of the £750,000 is set to come from fundraising, charity trusts, the parish councils and other grant-making organisations.

The 12-bed hospital, founded in 1910 and run by the NHS but owned by the charity, takes patients from GP surgeries such as Hartley Wintney, Hook and Odiham.

The new two-storey building, linked to the hospital, will have a rehabilitation suite on the ground floor and a quiet room for patients’ relatives on the first floor.

Helen Fleming, vice chairman of Odiham Parish Council, said: “It’s great news for the community.”