Villagers pledge to fight surgery plan

VILLAGERS have vowed to continue to fight against plans for a new GP surgery to serve several coastal communities.

Tendring Primary Care Trust has decided to build a new health centre in Kennedy Way, Clacton, after a year of trying to find a suitable location.

The centre will serve 20,000 patients across Clacton, Great Clacton and Holland-on-Sea, merging four existing GP practices.

Transport arrangements will be made by the trust to help outlying residents to get to the new health centre.

Two smaller satellite surgeries are due to be set up in Great Clacton and Holland-on-Sea, but residents in both of these villages are still unhappy about the proposed central surgery.

Hugh Morrison, chairman of Holland-on-Sea Residents Action Group, said: "We will fight this to the death."

Mr Morrison said: "They talk about a multi-million pound health centre, we don't know whether it's going to be new or in converted building.

"Nobody ever wanted a health centre to be put in Kennedy Way, which is an industrial site. There's no proper bus service."

He added: "We're getting the people of Great Clacton to join us in force."

The trust has been searching for a location for the new health centre for over a year. The delay in finding a site left some doctors threatening to leave the area claiming current working conditions are antiquated.

Private contractors The Mill Group has been chosen to build the new health centre, which is being funded through a private finance initiative.

The "health centre of excellence" will provide state-of-the-art facilities, including mental health services, district nursing and health visiting, podiatry and minor operations.

It is part of an overhaul of primary care services in north Essex, set out in the local improvement finance trust (LIFT) scheme.