Homes and surgery planned for Woolavington (From Bridgwater Mercury)
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Homes and surgery planned for Woolavington
7:30am Monday 8th October 2012 in News
Homes and surgery planned for Woolavington
A VILLAGE could get a much-needed replacement for its cramped doctor's surgery, but not everybody is happy.
Woolavington Parish Council met last week to discuss a scheme by BAE Systems and Edington Surgery, for 60 homes and a new branch surgery off Crocker's Hill, to the north-west of the village.
Parish councillors will also soon be discussing plans just submitted by PM Asset Management for 120 homes on land south of Sedgemoor Way.
That scheme could also include a doctor's surgery, although PM Asset Management admits another medical facility might not be needed if the Crocker's Hill project goes ahead.
PM Asset Management's agents Barton Willmore say: “Should a doctor's surgery ultimately not be required on the proposed development site, an alternative non-residential use could be sought.”
Parish council chairman Adrian Chidgey told the Mercury the village desperately needed a new surgery.
He said: “The current surgery is very old and it's just a little building next to the Co-op. We've been going on for a long time about getting the surgery upgraded but that's not viable because it would have to have disabled ramps.”
However, within the village, not everybody agrees on where the surgery should go, and wide-ranging concerns have been raised about both proposed developments, including traffic, access and the principle of building on green fields.
A petition signed by 350 people objecting to the Crocker's Hill scheme has been passed on to Sedgemoor District Council.
Two letters of objection have already been penned to the council about the Sedgemoor Way project.
Robert Plews, of Darkfield Way, wrote: “If there was such a need for more houses, why are there so many empty properties in the village?
“Everyone I know that lives in the village does not want this to go through.”
A supporting statement for the BAE Systems and Edington Surgery scheme, which also includes a play area and road improvements, says its surgery would provide “excellent facilities” and bring “real health improvements”.
PM Asset Management says its scheme would also provide shops and other small businesses and represent a “sustainable development opportunity for Woolavington”.
Comments(5)
Pwig
says...
1:12pm Tue 9 Oct 12
major irreversable mistake.There are already 3 adjoining roads onto Higher Road, plus access to a primary school
and nursery all within a short distance.
The proposal would add yet another adjoining road.Whatever road improvements were made this could not alleviate this problem. The traffic volume
from a doctors surgery,housing development plus the impending energy park which is a little further along the
road, would generate significant additional problems.
Just to accommodate a doctors surgery
it would be wrong to create a dangerous
enviroment. Surely safety must come
first
MartinB58
says...
1:34pm Wed 10 Oct 12
Where is the justified need for 202 new homes in Woolavington with 180 of these homes proposed on greenfield sites expanding the overall size of the village by something like 15%? If this all goes ahead we will need a new primary school and I expect this would also have to destroy further greenfields.
At this rate it will not be many years before Woolavington joins up with Bawdrip to the south and Puriton to the west and then gets swallowed into a ‘greater’ Bridgwater as just another urban suburb.
In my opinion, a new surgery would be better located at the top of Woolavington Hill close to the site of the current one so people who walk to the current surgery will still be able to do the same with a new one.
Tommo1888
says...
2:15pm Thu 11 Oct 12
Mastodon
says...
4:01pm Sun 14 Oct 12
The proposal is a marraige of convenience between a doctors pratice keen to expand and a housing development that needs the surgery to validate its plans to build on fields outside the village boundary.
There are serious access and traffic issues here, not to mention the loss of green fields and rural character.
I hope SDC throw this one out.
Salhow says...
6:53pm Mon 8 Oct 12