ONE of Taunton’s most notorious ‘white elephant’ building projects will become a vital new facility for the town’s hospital after plans were approved.

The Zenith Fire Control Centre on Blackbrook Park Avenue was meant to be used as a regional centre to handle 999 calls – but it has never been used.

The building has remained empty since it was completed in 2007, costing taxpayers millions of pounds to maintain.

Now the facility will at last get a new lease of life after plans for a new diagnostic centre were approved by Somerset West and Taunton Council.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust – which runs Musgrove Park Hospital – submitted plans in June as part of a new partnership with Rutherford Diagnostics to transform the mothballed building.

A spokesman for the trust said: “In the last four years, the trust has experienced a continuing increase in the number of patients requiring diagnostic tests as part of their referral pathway.

“In addition, the trust is located on a landlocked site which means there are limited options for on-site expansion.

“The delivery of a new diagnostic centre and imaging service will be part of a longer-term, system-wide approach to provide a sustainable solution for the population of Somerset, delivering improved value for money, patient experience and national access standards.”

The ground floor of the building will be converted to create the diagnostic centre, including two MRI scanners, two CT scanners, an X-ray facility and an ultrasound facility.

The first and second floors will be used as offices, meeting rooms and for general training.

Anna-Mari Galliott, the council’s planning officer, said: “The building offers the opportunity to extend both the scope and scale of these services.

“This will take significant numbers of patients, who do not need to be on a hospital site, away from congested and space-restricted hospital estates – reducing congestion and allowing hospitals to re-utilise space to improve clinical outcomes.”

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has also supported the change, describing the new centre as “a valuable new service for the people of Somerset… [and] an excellent use for this building which is currently vacant and un-used.”

A spokesman added: “The location of the building adjacent to Junction 25 of the M5 motorway makes it easily accessible, and it has on-site parking for staff and patients.

“Re-purposing an existing building in this way in a sustainable location which brings an unused facility back into beneficial use, rather than constructing a new building on a greenfield site.”