* A plan shows how the proposed new health
centre would extend along the River Dee.
* Interested members of the public gather
around the display boards.
A STEADY stream of people turned up at Llangollen Town Hall
late on Tuesday afternoon to be briefed on plans for the area’s new health
centre.
The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which
controversially axed the town’s cottage hospital earlier this year, recently
announced it intends to build a new multi-purpose health facility on land on
the A539 currently owned by the Welsh Government and occupied by the derelict
former River Lodge hotel.
After unveiling an artist’s impression of the proposed new
centre in May, the board took over the Town Hall from 3-6.30pm on Tuesday to
provide further details of the scheme ahead of submitting a planning application
to Denbighshire County Council.
Members of the public gathered around a series of display
panels giving details of various aspects of the plan.
Staff from the health board and Llangollen GP Practice were
also hand to answer questions.
Visitors learned that the new centre would be shared between
the GPs, the health board, the county council’s social care department and the
voluntary sector.
Among the services it would provide are midwifery,
outpatients, mental health and social care services.
It was also revealed that discussions were taking place
about relocating Rowlands Pharmacy, currently opposite the GP practice in
Regent Street, to the new centre.
According to the health board’s proposals, the new centre
would be located within the World Heritage Buffer Zone and the Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The site it would occupy extends along the River Dee,
bordered on the eastern side by the old railway line and mature woodland and a
residential area on the western side.
It is proposed that the GP practice would relocate to the
new centre after it is completed in 2015.
The board also proposes that during August and September
this year the practice becomes responsible for the local minor injuries
service.
Generally, the board says the new centre will become a
“focal point for health care in the community” and would also provide extra
space in which a range of clinics can be offered.
It would also, said the board, be “designed to blend in with
and enhance the historical character” of the local townscape.
Among those at the briefing session was Llangollen county
councillor Stuart Davies who said: “It will be a better facility than we had
before, albeit without the beds. But it would be wrong to think that particular
fight had been lost.”
On the question of ease of access to the proposed centre, he
said he understood talks were going on with a local bus company with a view to
having one of its services stop there.
Cllr Davies said he was also continuing to explore the
possibility of a new bridge being built over the River Dee from the new centre
to a point near the playing field on the opposite bank.
Urging people to make use of the minor injuries unit when it
was at the GP practice in August and September, he said: “If the health board
see it not being used there is a danger they might take it away, so it’s a case
of use it or lose it.”
Also at the briefing session was Shaolin Monk Pol Wong whose
own plan for his Powys Fadog organisation to open a community centre in the
River Lodge was thwarted by its Welsh Government owners.
This drew criticism from the Welsh Audit Office and the
Welsh Assembly’s public accounts committee, which accused the government of
wasting £1.6 on the affair.
Mr Wong was distributing copies of documentation supporting
his case to members of the public.
