PLANNERS are in favour of a travelling families GP surgery being established on the Rotherwas Industrial Estate in Hereford.

At Herefordshire Council's central planning sub-committee yesterday Wednesday, they were expected to recommend approval.

Herefordshire Primary Care Trust has been given nearly £1 million over three years by the Department of Health to set up a pilot scheme to enable travellers to have better access to health care.

The trust says a building in Twyford Road on the estate is a suitable place for an administrative and staff base.

The main service would be carried out by a mobile health clinic which would travel round the county and not be parked at Rotherwas.

The health trust wants permission for the change of use of building and to site a portable cabin nearby.

Three departments of the council have objected to the application largely on the grounds that Rotherwas was a main employment area and such a change could establish a 'dangerous precedent'.

There have been objections, too, from four businesses nearby for the same reasons and citing danger to children because of heavy lorries in the area, parking problems and extra non-commercial traffic.

In response planners say the change of use was acceptable when it could be demonstrated that environmental and community benefits outweighed the advantages of retaining land or premises to provide local employment.

It considered the service provisions for travelling families constituted a significant community benefit.

The planners recommended approving the application with 10 conditions.

These included: the use should be for a period expiring in October, 2003, the portable cabin be removed from the site by the same date, the premises be used for a travelling families GP surgery and for no other purpose and that the travelling surgery shall not be based there.