WITH the current squeeze on public funding and the huge amount of pressure on spending in the NHS, it’s disappointing to discover that a facility that cost £1.6m has closed after less than 18 months.

There’s no doubt that there’s increasing need for mental health services both in Bradford and across the region more widely, so it’s somewhat surprising that this unit has not been able to plug the gap that health bosses thought they had identified.

Whether or not the services that were on offer at the purpose-built Daisy Hill Intensive Therapy Centre were quite appropriate for the community is for others to judge.

What it does do is call into question the rigour and thoroughness with which the planning for this project was carried out prior to all that money being spent.

Was there enough depth of research in assessing the requirements of the community when the scheme was being devised?

There now needs to be real scrutiny into the decision-making process that led to allocation of this cash for what now looks to be a waste of money.

It is also concerning to learn that Bradford Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board and its chairwoman did not appear to have been made aware of the closure of the unit, seemingly reducing the chances of the pitfalls of the project being scrutinised by councillors in a public arena. What’s clear is that the thought process behind the opening of such a facility and the issues that led to its subsequent closure needs to be fully examined to ensure lessons are learned to prevent similar issues arising in the future.