Plans to extend the GP surgery in Peasedown St John have received the backing of the village community leaders and Councillors Karen Walker and Sarah Bevan.
The two have given their support to plans to extend Hillcrest GP Surgery, creating a retail pharmacy and additional, much needed clinical rooms.
Cllr Karen Walker said: “In all the years I’ve been active in the community, one of the consistent issues that residents raise with me is the need for more healthcare services – notably in the form of a bigger GP surgery.
“As a community, we value our local GP Surgery, Hillcrest, and appreciate the efforts of all the staff who work hard to care, support and heal the thousands of people who sit in their waiting room every year.
“We want to ensure though that Hillcrest Surgery will always be able to meet the demands of people’s health care needs in the 21st century, and always have the resources to cater for the growing number of residents in our village.
“With new housing developments over the last 15 years, and more people moving to our village, Cllr Bevan and I have written to the planning officer giving our full support for this extension.”
Cllr Sarah Bevan believes that in order to cater for the medical needs of the village’s 7,000 residents the success of this planning application is essential.
She said: “As two local councillors we are always keen to ensure that our residents have the very best services, and we are continually campaigning to make sure that government, both locally and nationally, invests the funding we need in our village.
“Over the last 25 years, Peasedown has seen a considerable growth in the number of people living here.
“Housing developments and extensions to the original village mean that our community population now stands as almost 7,000 people.
“For us, every single resident is important, and therefore must have quality amenities and services on their doorstep that can be accessed with ease.”
Sarah has also called for better and easily usable disabled access for wheelchair users to and from the surgery building.
In an email to Practice Manager Anne Davis, and in response to residents’ requests, she’s asked for a permanent ramp to be installed at the surgery entrance.
In conjunction with the planning application, Karen and Sarah are also arranging for a new bus shelter to be erected at the near-by bus stop, which is popular with users of the local Bath-bound Somerbus service.
A decision from B&NES’ planning department is expected around 18th September.
To see the full plans visit the council’s planning portal at www.bathnes.gov.uk/projects/bathnes/developmentcontrol with the reference 15/03033/OUT.
