Warwick residents fail in bid to convert former medical centre into community hub

Matt Western MP stands with Packmores Community Centre secretary Amanda Burford Warwickshire county councillor John Holland and Warwick district councillor Dave Skinner outside the former Priory Medical Centre site in Cape Road, Warwick. Picture supplied.

Residents on Warwick’s Packmores estate have failed in a bid to take over a former town centre medical centre to use as a community hub.

Amanda Burford spoke at this week’s cabinet meeting of Warwickshire County Council to ask that they be allowed to take on the Priory Road building but councillors opted instead to lease it to the South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT).

She said a county council report daing back to 2005 highlighted the fact that the Packmores was the only deprived area in Warwickshire without a stand-alone community centre.

She added: “We are on the frontline and can see the needs of our residents. Because of this we recognise the requirement of a warm, safe community hub that is inclusive to everyone.

“The Priory Medical Centre is a ready to go building that means we would be able to provide wraparound care and serve all residents from cradle to grave. It has parking facilities and disabled access is already there. We would be able to justify your initial spend by generating revenue by renting out some of the space to various social and wellbeing groups.

“If you do refuse us the medical centre we would want to know what you are providing us with instead so that we can fulfil our community needs.”

Council leader Cllr Izzi Seccombe said a meeting would be arranged between herself, other portfolio holders and residents to find a way forward but added that she felt that the medical centre was not the right solution.

She explained: “We know that Packmores is a community that deals with a lot of deprivation and a lot of need but this [building] isn’t Packmores and my concern is that I wouldn’t want to see is that we neglect the needs of some because of moving a mile plus to here.

“I accept the issue of car parking but the important thing for me is that old people and young families who perhaps don’t have a car have the facilities where they need them.”

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SWFT will now take on a three-year lease of the building from where they will base their out of hospital support including their diabetes service.

Cllr Margaret Bell (Con, Hartshill and Mancetter), the portfolio holder for adult social care and health) said: “It isn’t that Packmores isn’t recognised as an area of need, it’s just about finding the right solution for it and this is not in the right place and is only temporary.

"We wouldn’t want to put a lot of community services in there and then make you homeless.”

Earlier this week, Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western spoke in support of the residents’ proposal for the medical centre, which he said would provide a vital boost to the Packmores area.