Publish date: 2 September 2025
Listening to our communities is a fundamental part of our bold ambition to develop a health and care neighbourhood, including building a new Leighton.
This will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects seen in Cheshire for many years, and it can only be delivered by us working with our communities.
This year we have hosted a range of engagement sessions and spoken to a wide variety of people, groups and organisations.
During the most recent round of engagement, we heard directly from 170 people via lived experience workshops, targeted groups, and drop-in sessions.
Participants included patients, older people via Age UK, young people from Cheshire College South and West, as well as members of East Cheshire Eye Society and Cheshire East Carers’ Hub.
Several key themes emerged either as broad considerations affecting a diverse range of people, or as issues affecting a specific group. These include:
- The need to treat everyone as an individual, not define a person’s needs by their condition
- Parking and public transport provision
- Waiting facilities
- Access to and from the hospital and navigation around the new hospital
- Provision of green spaces
Chris Knights, Healthier Futures Programme Director, said: “We made a commitment to ensure that we listen to our communities as we continue to progress the design of our new hospital. This work has helped us understanding the key priorities of our local population, and we will ensure that this work continues throughout the planning and construction phases.”
Below is a summary of the key themes.
