REGENERATION of the former Corus Ebbw Vale tinplate works is a step nearer as plans for a new hospital on the site take shape.

Land earmarked for the new Blaenau Gwent hospital will be bought by the county borough council in the next few weeks as part of its acquisition of the site from the company.

Gwent Healthcare Trust will then buy the 20-acre hospital site, near the works' former West Gate and close to the settlement of Garden City, when the full business case is finalised, estimated to be around spring 2007. In the meantime remedial work will be successfully completed.

Health bosses hope the £34 million hospital will be taking in its first patients by the end of 2009. The hospital is considered a flagship scheme for the regeneration of the whole tinplate works site, which closed four years ago. It is hoped it will act as a catalyst for other development.

The location near the West Gate was an 11th-hour proposal put forward by the council, which was keen that the hospital go on the Corus site. Before that a site next to Ebbw Vale's Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm had been selected by the trust and local health board.

Ebbw Vale South councillor Brian Clements said: "People in Blaenau Gwent, especially the elderly, will be very pleased that they will no longer have to travel to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny and won't have to pay the parking charges there."

An interim plan for health services in Blaenau Gwent during the run-up to the hospital's completion was agreed recently.

This will see the area's minor injuries services concentrated at Tredegar Hospital, and outpatient clinics focused at Blaina Hospital.

Ebbw Vale Hospital, which has significant health and safety problems, will close, probably by the end of this year.

Tredegar Hospital is also set to be the base for training over the next four years, so staff can develop the expertise and become familiar with different ways of working that will be required when the new hospital opens.

Building work on the hospital will start in autumn 2007. It will have 110 beds, including 14 for adult mental health patients, a minor injuries unit, and outpatient clinics.