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Search the Public Notice PortalA Herefordshire town councillor says he is “astonished” that more attention is not being given to its struggling GP surgeries which are still without a firm relocation plan.
Ledbury’s practice is operated by Ledbury Health Partnership from three buildings in the town centre.
But these are “at full capacity”, partner Dr Lisa Carpenter said a year ago, commenting on a planning application to create a new medical centre on the town’s outskirts along with a Lidl supermarket and a day nursery.
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The practice has already converted all available space into clinical rooms, has limited parking, and is prevented from recruiting clinical staff, even as the town continues to expand, Dr Carpenter said.
“An urgent premises solution is needed,” she warned, given the lease on the current practice expires in March 2027 – adding the proposed edge-of-town site, where Leadon Way, the A449 Ross Road and B4216 Dymock Road meet, would be “ideal”.
Practice manager Catherine Simonini has now confirmed that its position “remains the same as when Dr Carpenter sent her statement last year, in particular because our list size has grown since” – though she did not expect it would “turfed out” of its premises at the end of its current lease.
Town councillor Ewen Sinclair, who has been in discussions with the practice, said: “I am astonished that more isn’t being made of this,” adding that his own online polling showed overwhelming support for the new development.
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Lidl’s proposal for the mixed scheme was unanimously backed by county councillors last September, despite some local objections.
But a judicial review brought by Tesco, which has a large store nearer the town centre, led to the permission being quashed by a judge in January.
This, according to planning officer Ollie Jones, was due to “legal errors” in the application which have now been addressed.
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He is now recommending to members of the council’s planning committee that they again approve the scheme.
But his report points out that the application is for no more than outline permission for “a medical centre”, and “does not seek full planning permission for a replacement of the existing GP practice”.
So councillors “must not assume that the new facility would deliver additional GP services”, as its planning designation would “allow for a range of medical and health-related uses”.
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