Leominster’s Health Hub given the go-ahead

Leominster’s new free-standing health hub has been given the go-ahead.

The new health centre will now be built on disused ground at Marsh Court alongside Mill Street (the A44) to the north of the town, near the river Lugg.

The move will improve access to services, enable better management of patients in the community, and increase training and research locally, Hereford and Worcester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said.

A 2016 study identified “cramped conditions with no room for expansion” in the town’s two existing GP surgeries. Yet GPs’ lists were expected to rise from 20,000 to 26,000 in 10 years, the CCG said.

Ahead of the move, the town’s two current GP practices, Marches and Westfield, have announced they will merge next month to become Ryelands Surgery, following approval from the CCG.

A survey by the two surgeries last May showed high levels of support for the move.

The site for the new centre lies within flood zone 3a, the second most flood-prone in the Environment Agency’s classification.

To deal with this, the building’s floors are to be no lower than 15cm above the highest surrounding ground level, and solid or sealed to prevent groundwater seeping through.

Another condition of the development is that a full travel plan will have to be submitted within six months of its opening, to promote the use of sustainable transport.

The two-storey, timber-clad, pitched-roof building will be set around a north-facing landscaped courtyard garden.

It will have 81 parking spaces around the perimeter, including a dedicated ambulance space, and will also include a pharmacy.

The application was made by Frank H Dale Ltd, which owns the steel manufacturing business to the south, as well as the land on which the town’s existing surgeries lie.