HOSPITAL bosses are perplexed about a proposal to build 65 luxury homes on the site of Fall Birch Hospital - because the land has not been put up for sale.

Developer Wilson Connolly Northern has applied to Bolton Council for outline planning permission to build the luxury houses on the 3.5 hectare hospital site in Lostock.

Councillors will be meeting to discuss the proposal at their next planning committee on January 23.

But a spokesman for the Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust said they are bemused by the planning application, because the long term future of the hospital has not been decided and the site is not up for sale.

He said: "The outline application for residential development at Fall Birch Hospital was made entirely by the developer concerned for reasons of which we are unaware, as the site is not on the market.

"The long term future of the hospital has not been fully assessed, but will be taken into account as part of a multi-agency Bolton-wide strategy for health."

Paul Sedgwick, town planning consultant for Wilson Connolly Northern, said: "It is only an outline proposal. We want to establish with Bolton Council if we could develop on that land in the future if the opportunity arises."

Local residents have expressed their concern about the proposed development of the site. They believe that any housing would cause traffic congestion on surrounding roads.

The hospital, which cares for women with dementia, has faced an uncertain future for a number of years. There have been plans to move patients into more modern establishments, but no decision has been made yet by the Bolton NHS Trust, which owns the hospital, and the current tenants, the Bolton, Salford and Trafford Mental Health Partnership.

Ambrose Lowe, of Purbeck Drive, who lives near the hospital, said: "If this development does get the go-ahead it will generate even more traffic in the area."