Still no progress on health centre (From Halesowen News)

Still no progress on health centre

11:00am Friday 3rd July 2009

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A SUITABLE site has still not been found for a proposed £6m health centre in Cradley despite plans being in the pipeline for four years.

The Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) centre would combine services such as GP practices, pharmacies and dental surgeries and is desperately needed according to frustrated councillors.

Cradley Councillor Gaye Partridge, who sits on Halesowen Area Committee Cradley regeneration working group, said members were told the potential site of Providence Methodist Church in Windmill Hill had been ruled out.

She said council officers told the group the devastating news and said they felt there were no other suitable sites that were large enough in Cradley.

But the Primary Care Trust has insisted plans are still on track but said a site had not yet been found.

Cllr Partridge said: “After the meeting we felt we might have reached the end of the line.

“Cradley desperately needs a health centre – there’s a lot of chronic illness and a low level of car ownership and a lot of elderly and young people – it’s an ideal place for a centre.

“We need something to happen soon otherwise we will have missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

“The money’s there – we believe the site’s there – it’s the bureaucracy which seems to be getting in the way, people are seething.”

Cllr Body said: “We need a health centre, it looks like Lye is ahead of Cradley, it looks like we have been put on the back burner.

“If there's no will there isn’t a way of doing it.”

A spokeswoman for Dudley Primary Care Trust said: “The health centre planned for the Colley Gate area is still very much on the agenda for Dudley Primary Care Trust.

“In conjunction with partners at Dudley Infra Care LIFT, potential locations for the new development continue to be explored to ensure we find the most suitable location to meet the needs of the people in and around Colley Gate.”

She said the trust had never confirmed it was interested in the Providence Methodist Church site.

Church site.

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