Public meetings have been arranged next week to tell the public about proposals for new health centres in Wednesbury, Stone Cross and West Bromwich.

The meetings are part of a consultation process into an £80 million scheme to bring 14 new health centres to Sandwell.

Sandwell Primary Care Trust has arranged the meetings to find out what the public want from their new health centres and where they would like them sited.

The first of the consultation meetings is tonight between 6pm and 8pm at the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church, Marsh Lane, Stone Cross.

The second is on Thursday between 6pm and 8pm at St Mary Magdalene Church, Beacon View Road, West Bromwich.

The third and final meeting will be on October 16 between 6pm and 8pm at Wesley Centre for All Ltd, The Community Centre, Spring Head, Wednesbury. In Tipton the shortlist of potential locations centres include a canalside showroom fronting on to Dudley Port Road, a centre in Park Lane East, land off Peel Street, a site between Tudor Street and Dudley Port, or on land to the rear of the Royal Oak in John’s Lane.

In Wednesbury the favoured site is the former Friar Park petrol station in Cranehill Lane. The site has been deserted for a number of years and if plans get the go-ahead it is hoped that existing GP practices in the area will move into the new centre, where complementary and community services will be introduced.

Other locations people want to be considered include the site of the Carrington Road shops, which have been boarded-up for years, and Manor High School.

In Smethwick four sites have been identified as possible locations for the new centre.

These include former government offices at South Road and Church Hill Street and the current Victoria Health Centre on the corner of Suffrage Street and Hume Street.