A housing developer has announced proposals to build a GP surgery alongside 621 new homes in Nuneaton.
Taylor Wimpey has confirmed that it will ‘work out the best way to facilitate the delivery of a GP surgery’, following submission of its planning application to Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council in January 2020.
Warwickshire North CCG said ‘financial contributions’ and/or ‘provision of land for primary medical care’ is to be given to the CCG or its successor body from developers.
An investigation by our sister title Pulse in 2018 revealed that a number of local authorities are failing to give practices a share of the infrastructure funding they receive from housing developers.
None of the 35 councils that responded to Pulse’s freedom of information request had spent a single penny of the £61.5m collected from housing developers via the community infrastructure levy on GP practices.
Planning application ‘not yet submitted’
According to Taylor Wimpey’s proposals, its planned estate will include a range of bungalows, small homes, family houses and 25% affordable housing and will also feature a community hall and children’s play area.
A spokesperson for the CCG said: ‘NHS Warwickshire North CCG has an established process for responding to local plan consultations and planning applications. As part of this process, the CCG set out indicative infrastructure requirements within the borough council’s local plan in 2017.
‘The CCG has been exploring options for the east of Nuneaton and will be engaging with the developers proposing the scheme at Golf Drive. A planning application for this scheme has not yet been submitted, but the CCG will respond to the application through the established process with Warwickshire County Council Public Health once this takes place.’
The site was allocated for housing development in the borough council’s local plan, which aims to see up to 14,000 new homes built across Nuneaton and Bedford over the next 12 years.
A Taylor Wimpey spokesperson said: ‘We are currently preparing our proposals for the development of land north of Golf Drive in Nuneaton. We will work with the council throughout the planning process to agree the best way to facilitate the delivery of a GP surgery, along with other facilities for the benefit of the local community.’
Alyn Family Doctors, which has a patient list of 12,700 and nine GP partners said it was overstretched, unable to cope and ‘any other developments in our area are unmanageable’.
