Health centre plan for petrol station site

Revised plans to turn a former petrol station in the Black Country into a multi-million pound health centre with flats and shops look set to be approved.

Sodaskill Ltd has revised plans for the £4 million surgery and pharmacy in Crankhall Lane, Wednesbury, to include six consulting rooms. Work was originally meant to start in March with the centre up and running by the end of the summer but despite getting planning permission in December owners went back to the drawing board to make the alterations.

Demolition work took place at the site in January and Sodaskill bosses are confident that builders will be on site by summer.

They said today they hope to offer some of the flats for use as "health facilities" instead.

Once built, the new health centre will house Friar Park Chemists and doctors surgery which are currently based in the same street. Planners from private firm Sodaskill, which owns the pharmacy, want the development to become a new focal point for the community.

Applicant Jeevan Gill, of Sodaskill Ltd, said: "Phase one will be ready at the end of the year – that is the surgery and the pharmacy.

"We would really like some of the flats to be for other health facilities.

"We are able to offer six consulting rooms which means space for six doctors. Building will be completed at the end of this year."

He said that the surgery would be for people in the Friar Park area who are not able to get into Wednesbury itself where a new health centre is expected to open in 2012.

The Wednesbury health centre is set to be built on High Bullen alongside the town's leisure centre.

The new building will offer foot care, physiotherapy, minor surgery, baby clinics, mental health services, a pharmacy and an information point.

The Spires Health Centre and two other practices in the town have been in discussions about moving in.