Agenda item

Report of the Chairman, Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel, North Somerset Council.

The Panel agreed that this item be taken early.

In introducing the Panel working group’s report into transport access issues and potential mitigations at the proposed new GP Practice/Health Centre at the Weston Rugby Ground site, the Chairman emphasised the following:- 

·       solving the transport access challenges inherent to the location and layout of the site were a shared responsibility of the Clinical Commissioning Group, the developer and the Council since the proposal formed part of a wider regeneration scheme around Weston-super-Mare station;

·       these were preliminary discussions as the project was still some way away from the planning application stage; and

·       that he felt there was acknowledgement from all parties involved around the need to address these issues.

Although the report’s conclusion was that the Panel would be unable to support the current proposals as things stood, he considered there were reasons to be hopeful that the Panel’s concerns could be sufficiently addressed going forward, and the working group would reconvene at any time to consider any proposed revisions.

Before opening the item for Member discussion, he invited the CCG to respond to the report’s findings.  The Head of Locality – Weston, Worle and Villages (BNSSG CCG) confirmed that the CCG was working closely with the developer to find solutions to the accessibility challenges at the site. A transport feasibility study would need to be undertaken as part of the development of a planning application (due to be submitted at the end of August) and consideration was being given to options that would be submitted for planning officer feedback in the pre-application process. She said that that would be a useful point at which to bring the proposals back to the working group.

The Area Director – North Somerset (BNSSG CCG) added that the CCG shared the HOSP’s concerns around the need to address accessibility to the site.  In providing context, he said the selection of the current site had followed extensive site evaluation process and he emphasised that it would not have been chosen were it not for the opportunities around the Council’s planned regeneration of the surrounding area.

The Chairman then responded to Members’ comments and queries as follows:  he had not yet received responses from First Bus and First Great Western to questions raised by the working group; and that concerns raised by a Member around the particular challenges faced by older and less mobile people were acknowledged.

In bringing discussion on the item to a close, it was:-

Concluded: that, subject to the Chairman’s amendment to bullet point 4 (as italicised below), the following working group recommendations set out in the working group report be endorsed by the Panel:

·         HOSP recognises the importance for patient outcomes of building a bespoke health centre rather than retrofitting this into an unsuitable building, but this must be balanced with accessibility.

·         HOSP is unable to support the building of the health centre at Sunnyside Road (rugby club), as is currently planned, due to the inability of the site to suitably provide access to public transport which we believe will be detrimental to some patients.

·         HOSP calls on the CCG and the developers to work together to reconfigure the plans for the Sunnyside Road site incorporating a suitable road to allow access to public transport that serves patients using the health centre.

·         Upon reconfiguration of the plans for the site, the Chairman will reconvene to the working group to reconsider our position if there is new information.

·         If the plans remain unchanged then HOSP calls on the CCG to consider alternative plans for the relocation of Graham Road surgery (such as an alternative location or a branch surgery in the centre of Weston-super-Mare)