Completion of £6.5m medical centre is in sight
CONSTRUCTION of a new £6.5m medical centre in Gloucestershire is set to be completed by the end of the month. The facility is on the same site as the Five Valleys shopping centre in Stroud town centre, owned by developer Dransfield Properties.
Dransfield said the redeveloped premises at Number One King Street will become the new home of two of the town’s established GP practices – Locking Hill Surgery and Stroud Valleys Family Practice – which have now merged to become Five Valleys Medical Practice.
The fully-refurbished building will house a new first-floor physiotherapy and podiatry suite operated by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust as well as a new library – set to open in 2023 – and office facilities.
Dransfield said the two GP practices had outgrown their current buildings with the new facility enabling them to extend the range of services provided, expand training opportunities and support patients who require specialist treatment.
Managing director Mark Dransfield said: “The new medical centre will provide new and improved GP services for more than 15,000 patients and will link with our shopping centre, Five Valleys, as well as having excellent local transport links.”
Medical centre visitors will be able to park free of charge for 90 minutes at the car park at Five Valleys shopping centre.
Dr Ewart Lewis, GP partner at Locking Hill Surgery, said: “We’re thrilled to be moving into our new premises within the next few weeks, giving us the long-awaited opportunity to offer more services and care to our patients. Having additional consulting and treatment rooms will allow us to expand our teams, train more GPs and offer a greater range of services, for example diagnostics, minor surgery, contraception, mental health support, physiotherapy and social prescribing.”
Global coffee chain Starbucks is set to open a controversial new branch next to the medical centre, despite an online public petition objecting to it receiving more than 3,000 signatures of residents, business owners and political leaders. The coffee shop will be based in a building formerly occupied by Poundland and Woolworth’s.
Dransfield Properties said it had planned for the unit to be a pharmacy, but “despite best efforts over the last two years” no pharmacy had been willing to relocate its licence to operate at the premises. Website GloucestershireLive reported that Stroud District Council had said no new planning consent to turn the building into a cafe was required.