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Walsall health centre plans approved

Planning chiefs have rubber-stamped plans for a huge new health centre to be created in Walsall town centre.

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The Challenge Building in Hatherton Road, Walsall, is set to be demolished to make way for a new medical centre. PIC: Google Street View

The Challenge Building in Hatherton Road will be converted into a new medical facility which will bring together four existing GP practices under one roof.

On Thursday, Walsall Council’s planning committee agreed to grant permission for the centre – which will boast 54 consulting rooms, support spaces, an optician, pharmacy and a cafe.

Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had already backed the plans with Dr Simon Brake telling the committee that the new centre would transform patient care.

But the proposal was met with fierce opposition from Paddock ward councillors Rose Martin, Waheed Rasab and Gurmeet Singh Sohal who argued the new facility should have been built on a site in Broadway North in the heart of the areas it covers.

Plans released last year said more than £9 million would be spent on the facility and it would bring together the existing Lichfield Street Surgery, Saddlers Medical Surgery, The Limes Medical Centre and Sycamore House Medical Centre.

By Gurdip Thandi, Local Democracy Reporter