20/02303/FUL

Peacock House Baynhams Drive Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 8FN

24 November 2020

Change of use of ground floor of Block C of the Wolvercote Paper Mill development from GP surgery and business use to residential use (Use Class C3) comprising 5 x 2 bedroom flats and 2 x 1 bedroom flats. Alterations to fenestration at ground floor. Insertion of 3no. doors to north elevation and 4no. doors to south elevation.

We are dismayed to see that it is proposed that plans for the construction of a GP surgery on the Wolvercote Paper Mill development site are to be abandoned. This is in spite of the overwhelming support of the local community and the GPs and medical team of Summertown Health Centre who currently provide full medical services for the population of Wolvercote from a satellite surgery, 73 Godstow Road, a primitive single storey building, grossly unfit for medical practice in the modern era.
Summertown Health Centre’s list size increases remorselessly every year. The 190 new residences on the Paper Mill site in the heart of Wolvercote, together with the 500 new homes in nearby Oxford North will add approximately 2000 new residents requiring primary medical care. Care of those patients requires the proposed new GP surgery.
Property prices in North Oxford are amongst the highest in the UK. The two Summertown Practices have tried and failed over many years to secure modern premises from which to practise. The proposed GP Surgery on the Paper Mill site is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The Civic Society believes that the City Council was right to apply the condition to build the surgery to the planning consent. It is imperative that Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group provides funding to allow the original proposal to go ahead. We object strongly to this application to remove the condition requiring the provision of the GP surgery.