Plans for Church Stretton health centre take a step forward

Plans for Church Stretton's new £1 million Health and Wellbeing Centre were held back when it was found the semi-redundant building earmarked for the centre was not allowed to be sold by current owners, the Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust.

Now the Church Stretton Health and Social Care Partnership has struck a deal to rent the building on Easthope Road for next to nothing, allowing plans to proceed.

Bob Welch, chair of the partnership, who led a community appeal to raise £110,000 towards the costs of the centre before Christmas, said talks had been successful and the next step was to finalise plans and appoint contractors, which needed to be done in the next three months.

He said: "We have finally made progress, the Community Health NHS Trust have agreed to the long term lease at a peppercorn rent.

"It's now all systems go to provide planning permission for the final plan and we'll be commissioning a quantity surveyor and getting a contractor signed up."

He said a large amount of the funding for the centre was from the Roy Fletcher Trust, but that required a contractor be in place by the end of July.

"They've been very patient with us but we can't afford to lose the half a million funding that they've very generously agreed to grant us," he said.

He said details had yet to be thrashed out in meetings over the comingp weeks on the final form of the building and what space would be rented back from the partnership by the NHS Trust to operate services there.

"That is a key part of the centre being self-financing, so that we can run the building without any extra costs," he said.

He said the partnership were also keen to "future-proof" the plans so the centre was able to adapt to changes in the NHS and help support Church Stretton's ageing population living at home.

"After that, the next challenge is to find temporary accommodation for the services that still use the building," he said.

Although the property is largely disused, parts are still occupied by cancer care nurses and the Mayfair Trust, which is based at the Mayfair Community Centre next door, he said.

Individuals and businesses in and around Church Stretton came together to pledge £110,000 for the new health centre last year.

Townsfolk rose to the challenge of raising the key amount in three months to make sure funding was not lost and the £1 million centre could go ahead.