HEALTH chiefs are confident that work on the new £14 million Wharfedale Hospital in Otley will start in May - although it is yet to get planning permission.

The 9,000 square metre hospital, which will be built around a quadrangle and will be a mixture of three and four storeys, will be built next to the current Wharfedale Hospital in Newall Carr Road.

It already has outline planning permission, but at last month's meeting of Leeds City Council's Development Control Panel West, councillors raised concerns about access, car parking and its design.

Leeds City Council planners were expected to discuss the plans this week, but ongoing negotiations with the health trust and the council meant that the application was put back - probably to April 9.

Councillors on the planning committee have criticised the design of the part three storey and part four storey building as looking like a golf range. There are also fears that the planned grey aluminium roof will be clearly visible from the top of Otley Chevin.

Builders, HBG Projects and its partner United Medical Enterprises were selected at the end of last year to build the hospital. They will own and maintain the hospital, for 30 years after which it will revert back to the National Health Service.

A spokesman for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it was still planned to start work on the new hospital in May this year. If everything goes to plan, the hospital will be open by 2004.

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council said: "Negotiations are still going on with regards to the Wharfedale Hospital.

"We expect the item to be on the agenda of the Development Control Panel (West) on April 9."