A ONCE pioneering mental health unit is now boarded up and empty.

The Lea Castle Centre, in Wolverley, treated and assessed more than 600 people in its heyday in the 1960s and boasted facilities including a hydrotherapy pool and dental clinic.

The site was run by Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust and employed 187 people before the closure was announced.

Earlier in the year, trust bosses had decided to close the site following a public consultation. They said that most care was now provided in local communities.

Most of the 100-acre plus site is owned by English Partnerships with a smaller area owned by the trust.

A spokesman for the trust said: “All those 30 or so people who were still being treated at the Lea Castle Centre have now been found an appropriate care place.

“We have worked hard to manage that process as smoothly as possible.

“We have no long-term plans for the site but will continue to work with partner organisations to decide its best use in the future.”

Nigel Knowles, chairman of Lea Castle Action Group, which opposed the closure, said: “I am very pleased that all of the patients have been given alternative accommodation.

“I have spoken with some of the parents and they are content, although one or two patients are in temporary accommodation and that needs monitoring. Some of the parents are very relieved that the trial is now over. It has been going on for a long time and been very difficult for them, particularly with security guards on the site and buildings being boarded up around patients.”

Mr Knowles hoped all the patients could be permanently settled in Worcestershire and not moved out of the area. He added: “I still think an opportunity has been lost. The centre could have been an education and training centre for people with special education needs.

“It could have been a centre of excellence, like it used to be. That door has now closed.”

Stephen Clee, Wyre Forest District Council cabinet member for planning, regeneration and prosperity, said the site had been earmarked for a new science business park.

He explained that up to 1,000 jobs could be created by the transformation, should it go ahead.

Mr Clee added: “It is a prime site in the north of the county.

“I think we can attract the right people to invest there.”