All-clear for Spalding clinic plan despite parking fears
Friday, 4.30pm: A REBUILD of part of an old clinic in Spalding which will create a new base for 13,000 patients will go ahead despite concerns it will move parking problems "from A to B".
South Holland district councillors were told the proposals for the disused clinic in Beechfield Gardens were "virtually unrefusable" on planning grounds by one of the council's officers as they considered objections over parking made by nearby residents.
NHS Lincolnshire will now be able to start demolition on several small buildings at the front of the site to make way for a two-storey structure for consulting rooms, reception areas and offices.
When completed, the new Spalding Health Clinic will see patients move from the Church Street surgery.
In April, the plans were deferred by the council's development control committee for further reports.
Residents in Beechfield Gardens had complained that patients parking for the clinic had previously made the narrow road difficult to drive down.
Letters to Lincolnshire County Council's highways department have so far failed to help find a solution.
Parking problems also plague the surgery's current location in Church Street.
Committee chairman Coun Roger Gambba-Jones warned members the building could be used immediately under the current design and advised the decision had to be made on planning matters.
Coun James Avery said he fully supported the need to move the surgery to a new location but felt the council was moving parking problems from A to B.
However, ward member Coun Gary Porter said he hoped doctors would be prepared to meet some of the residents concerns.
Among the conditions imposed on granting the application, councillors asked for the agreed travel plan to be considered again.
Do you think the plans should have been passed? Have your say in our poll to the right hand side of this story.
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Weather for Spalding
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
