"Super surgery" green lit for construction

The former offices at Strawberry Hill House, Old Bath Road will combine two surgeries, Northcroft Surgery and St Mary’s Road Surgery into one, following the decision at a planning committee held last week (Wednesday).
The plans were originally submitted earlier this year and then withdrawn in May on recommendations by highways officers that traffic would impact on the area’s safety. Renewed plans amended the layout of the car park and reduced the number of spaces from a proposed 72 to 36 as transport and civil engineering consultant Stuart Michael Associates said the original number was excessive for the re-development.
Following consultation, there were 16 representations of support and two opposed, and the strongest opposition was from the highways officers who repeated their recommendation for a refusal, arguing that the development would have a cumulative impact on road safety.
Highways officer Paul Goddard said: “I have some concerns regarding this proposal. The parking demand exceeds the level of spaces we have on the site. This could cause many people to drop off patients on the double yellows at the front which are there for safety reasons.”
He later said the traffic model submitted had been “underestimated” and that “on this basis we recommended a refusal.”
Speaking in support of the surgery on behalf of Newbury Town Council councillor Phil Barnett said: “In the first instance we were really concerned about this application but now it has been resubmitted we have a completely different attitude.
“This surgery is really important for the town and surrounding area.
“Northcroft and St Mary’s can’t take many more patients. This ‘super surgery’ as it is being called is what Newbury needs and not just for the patients but also the staff.”
Representatives from both surgeries were also at the meeting to argue the case for the amalgamation and said that the two surgeries would remain separate and would share the building’s facilities, but were unable to specify how many additional patients would be attracted to the new site and whether it would have a new name.
On debating the application the combination of the two surgeries received overall support from councillors.
David Allen (Lib Dem, Victoria) said: “This application needs our support. We have a growing population and surgeries are overstretched. We are concentrating too much on car parking issues. I would like to propose to grant conditional permission.”
Julian Swift-Hook (Lib Dem, Greenham) said: “There is no doubt that this would benefit the people of Newbury immensely and so you should overrule the concerns of the highways people.
“There is going to be significant demand on all services and especially medical services and if you are going to build homes then we have to build the services to go with it. And so I have no alternative but to wholeheartedly support this application.”
Roger Hunneman (Lib Dem, Victoria), who originally called in the application on the grounds of significant public interest, said: “From a personal point of view I would rather attend a first class, modern facility than have to sit in a traffic jam for a few minutes.”
The application received unanimous approval from councillors and the new development must now be completed within the next three years.