A new doctor’s surgery complete with a NHS dental practice, costing between £2.5 and £3.5 million is on the cards for Kington.
A planning application for the surgery is expected to be submitted in the autumn and the doctors at the Meads Practice, who have been searching for a new site since 2001, are hoping to be in their new surgery by Christmas 2009.
A two-acre site, which they admit could be controversial, has been identified on Old Eardisley Road, opposite the entrance to Arrow Plant and Tool Hire.
An ecological study is looking for otters and great crested newts, and a traffic study is being conducted now. The new surgery will have to have at least 1,200 square metres of clinical space, 30 per cent growth space and it will have to have 50 car parking spaces – to meet government standards and make sure they maintain funding.
Dr Richard King of the practice told Kington Town Councillors about the plans at a meeting on Monday. He said they had been looking for a site in the town for seven years and this was the tenth one they have considered.
He said because of the space needed there were not many opportunities within the town boundary for the development, and this site would be an exception site as it is not within the Unitary Development Plan.
Dr King said he realised that the site might by contentious but this was the best compromise they could reach at the moment.
He said if the plan went ahead they would have to look at highway works such as reducing the speed limit and introducing a pelican crossing. But he said an in-house traffic survey carried out by the surgery two years ago showed that 80 per cent of their 8,400 patients travel to the surgery by car, and at least this site would secure pedestrian access.
“The good news is that we have got permission to build a new NHS dental practice on behalf of Herefordshire Primary Care Healthcare Trust, and they will run it,” Dr King said. “We are also trying to include some mobile screening services so patients currently travelling to Hereford or Leominster will be able to have scans in Kington.”
