Town

Lace Hill medical centre may be abandoned without support

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Planning permission was granted for a medical centre to be constructed in the Lace Hill Estate in Buckingham.

However, unless work begins this year, the project will be stopped as the money to fund the centre will no longer be available in 2025.

Local councillor Howard Mordue has been campaigning for the initiation of the new facility.

Help is being asked for from the Treasury as the rent value set in 2021 does not take into account the five per cent rise in interest rates, now making the financial model unviable.

Mordue is seeking Government assistance as the District Valuer is refusing to change the rent terms. Property company, Montpelier, is not going forward without a change as it would not generate income from the scheme.

Local MP Greg Smith, and the nearby Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes South, Iain Stewart, have already backed the campaign.

Councillor Mordue said: “Buckingham is a growing and thriving town. but its primary care facilities have totally failed to keep up with increasing demand. They are woefully inadequate, with no proper disabled access and are in a growing state of disrepair. We desperately need action at the highest level to give Buckingham the fit for purpose medical centre that it so badly needs. If we do not get this medical centre the opportunity may be lost forever and medical care in Buckingham will seriously deteriorate putting peoples’ health at risk’. The medical centre is alive but in intensive care.”

Image sources: Montpelier Estates, Buckingham Town Council

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