Fury at Sully visit (From Penarth Times)

Fury at Sully visit

FURIOUS local residents fighting asylum-seeker plans for Sully Hospital have slammed First Minister Rhodri Morgan for allowing Home Office inspectors access to the site.

Sully community councillors are livid that Mr Morgan overruled the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust by instructing them to allow Home Office inspectors access to see if the site is suitable for 750 refugees.

But Mr Morgan says inspectors should be able to get in and see how unsuitable the Hayes Road site is.

Council chairman Cllr David Sylvester said: "The members of my council have an excellent relationship with the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust.

"We have worked closely with them in achieving a revised planning consent in relation to the Sully Hospital site.

"While I understand the point of view of Rhodri Morgan, I do not feel that it was necessarily appropriate for him to overrule the Trust at this point in time."

Mr Morgan has taken up the case because Health Minister Jane Hutt has an interest as Assembly Member for the Vale of Glamorgan.

He said: "Without the Home Office inspectors seeing the site for themselves, they're unlikely to be convinced of its unsuitability.

"We, the Assembly, share the local view that the building is not safe nor suitable. We should demonstrate this to the Home Office by allowing them to see it for themselves."

Sully Hospital opened in 1936 as a tuberculosis hospital. In its last years it was used to house mental health patients, eventually closing in March last year when the final patients were moved to Barry and Whitchurch Hospitals.

It closed after a Health Advisory Service report stated: "Sully Hospital does not provide an adequate environment for the inpatient care of people with a mental illness."