A DERELICT former hotel near Weyhill will be demolished and the site turned into a secure unit for the severely mentally ill - if plans submitted by a London based healthcare company are approved.

Under the proposal, which has just been submitted to Test Valley Borough Council planners, the former Rothsay Hotel will be replaced by buildings designed specifically to meet the needs of the mentally ill.

Covenant Healthcare Ltd has submitted the application to provide for 46 people in secure accommodation surrounded by a five metre (16ft 5ins) mesh fence for security.

Some of those housed at the unit will have been compulsorily detained and in the acutely disturbed phase of a serious mental disorder requiring psychiatric intensive care.

Such people, who will be referred by the NHS and the private sector, need a high level of supervision so the facility will employ 18 nurses, 12 administrative staff and 15 other specialist mental health professionals.

Covenant Healthcare is a London registered company already running one such facility in Ayr with two more in the pipeline apart from the one at Weyhill.

In its application the company says there is a shortage of provision in this area and its construction would make it easier for family members to visit patients.

The site has very good road links, 'a country ambience without being isolated' and 'no adjoining residents and there will be no overlooking of the property'.

For the full story see Friday's Andover Advertiser.