A suggestion that a replacement hospital to the ageing King Edward VII Memorial Hospital be built on land next to Pembroke Marsh should be given further consideration, according to a former Planning Department head.

Nicky Gurret is continuing to push forward her concept of using a corner of the land, which is currently occupied by the Works and Engineering departments waste collection services, as a suitable site for a new $500 million hospital rather than Government?s currently favoured option of building on ten acres of the Botanical Gardens.

In a statement earlier this month Bermuda Hospitals Board spokeswoman Anna Lowry said the idea of building a new hospital off Marsh Folly Road was considered in the initial process of identifying potential sites but was later discarded as not being feasible after research indicated the environmental risk of building on the marsh was too high for an acute care hospital.

She added: ?And while technically possible to build over the marsh and landfill with piles, construction is prohibitively expensive and potentially problematic.?

However, Ms Gurret believes the available evidence from a 1960 assessment report of the marsh area reveals levels of bedrock that could be used to support a hospital building.

And she says the environmental concerns about gases is not an issue because her proposed site does not place the new building in an area where such gases exist.

The former head of building control has approached Colin Campbell of design company OBM, which has been involved in the hospital estates? plan, with details of the Pembroke Marsh site and now wants it to be revisited in light of the1960 Chasemore Report carried out on the geology of Pembroke Marsh for the Public Works Department.

?From the Chasemore Report the indication is that there is solid rock where the hospital can be built.

?I want this project to be really looked at. To me it seems the ideal position. We create a new park and hospital. This scheme also puts money into the back of town area,? she said.