More than eight years after a devastating fire engulfed a Surrey health centre, a replacement community hospital has been approved.

After a prolonged period of temporary units and uncertainty, Weybridge is set to welcome a brand-new, purpose-built health centre. 

A  blaze ripped the heart out of the town’s existing health centre in 2017, leaving residents with a makeshift complex of temporary buildings on the same Church Street site. 

The new health centre  will host the Phoenix Family Practice, an urgent treatment centre, community health services and a diagnostics unit.

The scheme will see the construction of a large, two-storey building with 22 consulting rooms and 13 treatment rooms. 

However, the development is not without some pushback; a handful of neighbours have attacked the scheme for potential risks to highway safety and people walking around or through the site.

Planning officers recommended the scheme for approval, determining the benefits of the modern medical care centre far outweighed the downsides concerning highway and traffic issues.

Planning documents reveal the development is supported by sustainable energy including air source heat pumps and solar panel; it is designed to be thematically compact and has initiatives such as water recycling. 

Some neighbours flagged concerns about reduced parking – 92 spaces versus the previous 132 and a new pedestrian walkway which they said could endanger highway safety and create congestion issues on Portmore Way. 

Listening to the complaints, the applicant revised the pathway similar to the previous entrance to protect highway safety. But traffic surveys found the number of car spaces would not have a negative impact on the local highway network. 

The applicant, NHS Property Services, worked with North West Surrey Alliance and NHS Surrey Heartlands to bring the proposal forward.

The organisations said they have sought to provide a “fit for purpose” building which will “manage increasing future demand and internal and clinical patient environments”.