A long awaited new 24-hour health centre for Horwich is set to be built after planning was approved.
Bolton Council’s planning committee unanimously backed plans for a new healthcare facility, on the site of the former leisure centre, which would replace three existing medical practices in Horwich, which have been considered to be no longer fit for purpose.
Documents to be put before members of planning state ‘the development would deliver primary care to Horwich residents in a more integrated, joined up manner’ and ‘support the shift in services from hospital to community settings’. The building would include a pharmacy and would officer a wide range of medical facilities and services.
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Planning officers said they do not consider that the development would unduly harm the amenity of neighbouring residents, but said there would be some harm given the proposed 24 hour use of the development. The proposed health centre would replace three existing medical practices, Horwich Clinic on Jones Street, Pike View Medical Centre on Albert Street and The Market Surgery (Bolton Community Practice) on Chorley New Road.
The development is also in collaboration with the Royal Bolton Hospital Foundation Trust Community Services. The report adds: “The applicant states within their submission that the development would enable the delivery of primary care directly to 10,500 Horwich residents whilst accommodating the provision of further community and extended services to the growing population of around 31,000 residents.
“The facility will enable a larger and broader primary care team, working in a fully ‘joined up’ way with community teams, voluntary and third sector
organisations within the neighbourhood, and that the facility would support the shift in services from hospital to community settings. It is proposed that the healthcare facility will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The centre will have a pharmacy on the ground floor and will offer GPs, community and mental health, diabetes and respiratory clinics and specialist physiotherapy. It will be three storeys in height and constructed mainly from grey brickwork at ground floor with render applied to the first and second floors.
The building will be to the north of the site, with its entrance facing the neighbouring Horwich Leisure Centre. Two vehicle accesses would be from Church Street and Victoria Road. 200 parking spaces are proposed within the car park, 101 for the proposed healthcare facility and 99 for the existing and adjacent leisure centre.
These include 12 disabled bays and 10 EV charging spaces. Provision is also made for ambulance and taxi drop-off and cycle parking.
Two letters commenting on the proposed development have been received from Stocks Residents’ Association and a neighbouring resident. They raised concerns that the traffic assessment ‘appears inadequate’, concerns that car headlights will shine in neighbouring windows and that car parking will be brought closer to the houses at the rear.
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