A renewed bid is to be made to enable expansion of Pinchbeck doctors’ surgery – turned down earlier this year after residents expressed fears about parking issues.
Munro Medical Centre, of which the Church Walk surgery is part, has been told it can still access the NHS England funding to enable the plan, which may have been lost due to the delay.
Graham Wheatley, senior partner, said an appeal will be lodged soon against South Holland District Council’s planning committee decision to deny permission for a second consulting room at the surgery. If approved, the plan will also see works to bring the entire site up to modern standards and mean 3,000 patients currently seen in West Elloe Avenue, Spalding, can be seen in Pinchbeck. The NHS funding is expected to cover around two thirds of the £100,000 project cost.
Pinchbeck surgery has limited parking space in front of its building on land owned by next door business Regency hairdressers.
Regency owner Kirstie Taylor joined with residents to object to the expansion proposal fearing the issues over parking it could lead to in the small cul-de-sac.
She said: “It’s public money being poured into a hole that’s not capable of dealing with what they want. They should be looking for somewhere else to put this to accommodate the village needs for the next 50 years.
“The village does need its own surgery but it needs to be in a better position in the village.”
Dr Wheatley said: “Pinchbeck is a distinct community, which is quite sizeable and there is no health care provision in the village itself. This is an opportunity to have an improved and expanded medical centre in the village which will be hugely convenient for local people, particularly elderly patients.
“It will be beneficial not just for Pinchbeck residents who won’t have to travel to this surgery but will also make our Spalding surgery less congested.”
Dr Wheatley said a legal entitlement is in place to allow the surgery to use the land in front of it for parking but they would restrict it to use by staff and the disabled.
