HOPES of regenerating the Corus site in Ebbw Vale with a new £28.5m community hospital are fading, the Argus can reveal.

The planned new hospital for Blaenau Gwent is unlikely to go on the redeveloped site at Ebbw Vale because building it there, as set out in the regeneration masterplan, is likely to be too expensive.

A report being discussed by Blaenau Gwent Local Health Board (LHB) this afternoon says the original proposal, building the hospital next to the existing Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm, is a cheaper option.

A Welsh Development Agency-funded feasibility study on the earmarked Corus plot is still incomplete, but Gwent health bosses have already expressed concern about its suitability.

Now, land around Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm, north of Ebbw Vale, is set to be agreed as the LHB's preferred site for the new hospital in the outline business case to be sent to the Assembly.

It proved a better option in terms of cost than the other short-listed site - the RTB playing fields, Hilltop - following site investigations.

Today's report also states that although the final results of the masterplan site feasibility study are awaited, "based on information contained in the masterplan, the indicative costs for going to the Corus site suggest this as a more costly option".

But cost comparisons are not included.

Even at this late stage, somewhere at the Corus complex - either the masterplan site or an alternative - cannot be entirely ruled out as a location for the new hospital.

But with funding pledged and National Assembly permission soon to be sought for compiling a full business case based on the Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm site - and with health bosses keen to see the hospital opened by 2006 - time is running out to include the Corus site as an option.

A new hospital is the key to a radical reshaping of Blaenau Gwent's hospital services.

The county borough council chose the Corus site as its preferred option for the project last year, with closure of the tinplate works imminent.

Gwent Healthcare Trust and the former Gwent Health Authority have worked on new hospital proposals for the area for several years, with several possible sites in mind though until then, Corus Ebbw Vale was not among them.