Final decision due on Cleobury Mortimer medical centre
Plans for a new £1 million medical practice in a town in Shropshire are still awaiting final approval – more than a year after a land sale deal was agreed for the project.
Health chiefs will decide whether or not to approve key funding for the new surgery planned for the former Muller England site in Cleobury Mortimer at a meeting on Tuesday, November 27.
Developers Matrix Medical will only complete a deal to buy the land to build the medical practice once funding has been agreed and a planning application has been submitted.
Members of Cleobury Mortimer Parish Council were told that so far Matrix had paid a £5,000 fee for an option to buy the land.
Parish councillors agreed to a £170,000 deal to sell the land to Matrix in September last year, which will see the council receive £103,000 once Matrix has the £67,000 it needs to pay for accessing and clearing the site.
Officials at Shropshire County Primary Care Trust pledged to fund the project for the medical practice in March last year.
Councillor Sean Thorogood, chairman of Cleobury Mortimer Parish Council, told councillors the authority had received a letter from Ashley Seymour of Matrix Medical claiming if funding was approved work could finally begin next year.
Councillor Thorogood said: "Should the PCT give final approval at the end of the month, Matrix expects a full planning application to be submitted shortly afterwards.
"They anticipate work could start in May or Jun and that it would take about a year."
The new practice will replace the surgery at Pinkham, which staff say is cramped and no longer fit for purpose.
Proposals were suggested by rival developers Bovis Homes and Blue Square. Blue Square has since unveiled plans to build a 60-bed nursing home on land opposite the proposed medical centre site.
