Friday, February 21, 2014

New health centre plan gets go-ahead



* An artist's impression of the new health centre.

County councillors have approved plans to bulldoze the former River Lodge (pictured below right)and replace it with a new £5.5 million health centre on the same site off the A539.

The application from the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was given the go-ahead by the planning committee earlier this week.
However, a number of extra conditions were imposed on the original application.

These are:
8. The car parking areas shall not be brought into use until the written confirmation of the Local Planning Authority has been obtained to the proposed management arrangements for the use of the parking areas outside core operating hours.

Two conditions also need to be added to the suggested list, to cover the requirements of the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, and questions raised over the potential for contaminated land on the line of the former railway.

Suggested new condition(s):

20. No development shall take place within the application site until the applicant, their agents, or successors in title has secured the implementation of a programme of archaeological work in accordance with a written scheme of investigation, which has been submitted by the applicant and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The archaeological work shall be undertaken and completed in accordance with the standards laid down by the Institute for Archaeologists and MoRPHE (2006). On completion, appropriate reports and an archive assessment shall be submitted for approval to the Local Planning Authority and the Development Control Archaeologist, Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, 41 Broad Street, Welshpool, Powys, SY21 7RR  Telephone 01938 553670.

Reason: To ensure appropriate archaeological investigation and works are undertaken in conjunction with the development.

22. If, during development, contamination not previously identified is found to be present at the site then no further development (unless otherwise agreed in writing with the Local Planning Authority) shall be carried out until the developer has submitted a remediation strategy to the local planning authority detailing how this unsuspected contamination shall be dealt with and obtained written approval from the local planning authority. The remediation strategy shall be implemented as approved.

Reason: To ensure that appropriate steps are taken in the event of contamination being identified in the interests of protecting the adjacent main river from pollution.

8 comments:

  1. What a long way for people to have to go, especially those living the other end of town and beyond, unless of course they have transport.

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  2. Does it matter where it's situated? providing its bigger,employes more staff and has a larger car park than the current health centre (which is always jam packed), Only good thing about the current HC is that the chemist is directly across the road

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  3. Also what about people walking there,the pavement is very narrow on the aproach to it so I can see problems with somebody like a mum and kid in a pushchair going along and people having to step in the road to get past.

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  4. And of course it will mean that the town will never, ever be connected to the main railway system again as no provision has been left for a line to get by - even when petrol and diesel are well out of the reach of the average pocket and electric trains are the only way to get around.
    And before you say it's impossible just look at the Waverley Line in Scotland and bear in mind that the EU are already imposing pollution limits which are impacting on private car use in places well out of London.
    What price our tourism then?

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  5. I must agree with the comment above. With current transport proposals being far more pro-rail, it is important that enough space is left at the Health Centre site to safeguard any future attempts to reinstate the Llangollen-Ruabon link. The trackbed is pretty much intact up to the eastern boundary of the site and would further isolate Llangollen; reducing the chance of reprieve from the grid-locked, crowded roads during the summer months.
    I am not against having a health centre on this derelict and forlorn site, but I would appeal for space along the riverbank to be safeguarded as a potential railway corridor. Surely this is not too much to ask?

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  6. I wholeheartedly agree with the two comments regarding the rail link and think that this should be seriously considered by the planners. It would make commuting so much more relaxing!

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  7. Me too! It's time we started thinking about the well-being of the future instead of the temporary convenience of the present.

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  8. It may already be too late as planning permission seems to have been granted already but with the railway soon to run to Corwen it is important that the trackbed to Ruabon is protected as much as possible (some has already been built on). Like everything else, planners only take car drivers into account.

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