BURY'S former general hospital is to be turned into housing.

Bury Council's planning committee granted an application on Tuesday for 66 houses and 72 apartments at the Walmersley Road site.

The apartments will be built in three blocks, with a central section of houses facing the main access road. A crescent of town houses and two and three-storey houses will also be put up, facing a central square.

Parking bays for 82 vehicles will also be available in the centre of the site for the 72 flats, also including spaces for visitors.

The area is in the final stages of being cleared. Lodge houses which remained after the hospital was closed, are being refurbished.

Bury General Hospital closed in 2001 and services were relocated to Fairfield General Hospital.