WORK on a new hospital on the outskirts of Wellington is on schedule to be completed late next summer creating 225 well paid jobs.

The 75-bed hospital is being built at Chelston by Montpelier Estates just off the roundabout near the M5.

Montpelier won planning permission last year to build a medium and low-secure treatment and rehabilitation hospital for patients with a broad range of mental health problems at a cost of £20 million.

When finished the hospital will become one of Wellington’s biggest employers. Although many of the jobs will be specialist posts a number of vacancies will be available to unskilled staff which will require “training support from local educational establishments.”

The new hospital is being built on the rapidly-expanding Westpark 26. At its recent annual meeting, members of Wellington Business Association (WBA) were told that more than 8,000 customers a week – twice the predicted number – are using the new Shell/Budgens service station at Westpark 26.

The WBA’s guest speaker was Ben Trickey, development director for Summerfield Developments. He gave a detailed presentation, looking at the growth of Wellington’s Westpark 26.

“One example is the Skylark pub,” he said. “Marston’s was undecided whether a pub was viable on the site and its business forecasts were extremely modest. It’s turned out to be one of their best-performing pubs in the South-West.”

Westpark 26 was formerly Chelston Home Farm, a 50-acre farm which has undergone a multi-million investment. Construction of the business units started in 2010, with many selling before they were built.

So far 58 units have been sold in the initial phases of development, providing accommodation to a broad spectrum of businesses. Once finished Westpark 26 will provide more than 177,000 sq feet of business units.

Andy Sully, spokesperson for economic development for WBA, said: “Westpark is proving very successful in providing business units for companies to expand, or relocate, on the outskirts of Wellington. Its location is great, as it is only half a mile from Junction 26 of the M5 motorway and fronts onto the A38.”