Coventry City Council chiefs have given fresh hope to supporters of a city centre hospital ahead of Friday’s crucial meeting to decide the location of the new development.

The council was asked by the Coventry Health Authority to show that a city centre scheme was feasible, and leader of the council John Fletcher believes this is exactly what they have done.

He said:

"The Health Authority have always said that a city centre hospital was their preference if it could be made to work, and it can.

"We have now produced a document detailing the way in which it can work with no disruption to clinical services and no delay to the project, because it will be a phased building.

"When everything is put together the financial costs are within £50,000 of each other and therefore a city centre hospital is perfectly deliverable."

The Health Authority meet on Friday lunchtime, when they are expected to back either the city centre scheme or the proposal to build on the current Walsgrave site.

Although the council have stated that whatever the decision they will do all they can to help give Coventry the best possible hospital, Councillor Fletcher now believes the central site is in the driving seat.

He said:

"Now we have shown it is possible we must give the people of Coventry what they want, which is a city centre hospital.

"In these debates the Walsgrave Project Team have tended to act as prosecutor, judge and jury, and although they do tend to look on the black side of our proposals it is hard to argue with this."

Coventry’s director of city development John McGuigan believes that the case for a central hospital is also strengthened by government guidelines.

He said:

"Central government guidance states that major re-developments should be kept within the city centre where possible.

"A recent case of this was the new football Arena 2000 stadium which clearly could not be housed in the city centre, so was moved out of town.

"What has been shown now is that the situation with the new hospital is that it can be built in the city centre as practically as out of town."

McGuigan also stresses that the close comparison between the cost of the two options, the council believes it is just £50,000 cheaper to develop at Walsgrave, excludes a £1 million-a-year grant.

He said