Floored

(APRIL 2008)

IT HAS emerged, as these things somehow do, that the ground floor of the new Nantwich Health Park will be the "home" of the (presumably) healthy administration staff - the background teams, not the receptionists, etc.

   There hasn't be an announcement as far as I know, but some people have a knack of discovering things.

   The floors arrangement means that the patients from the Nantwich Health Centre, the Tudor surgery and Kiltearn Medical Centre will be on the two upper floors.

   So patients of all ages and in all states of ill-health will have to prove how fit they are before they can be seen by a doctor for whatever ailment they have!

   True, there is a lift to the upper floors, but lifts are like banks to some elderly people. No-go areas.

   Patients will, hopefully, be mainly passing through, but the administration staff will be there full time. You might think they would want a lofty viewpoint over the town. And being of working age you would expect that stairs and lifts present no problems to them.

   I still haven't heard anything about the future of the present health and dental clinic (to the left of these pictures).

   I am not the only one to think that it should be demolished and the land turned over to car parking to replace that lost to the Health Park. But . . . it will probably be seen as an ideal place to build a much-needed apartment block (!)      

Moved in

(JANUARY 2009)

WORK on Church View Primary Care Centre (to use its proper name) was completed on Friday, June 6, 2008.  Two weeks followed during which time the "furniture, fixtures and fittings" were installed".

   The medical people moved in between June 26 and July 18, beginning with the personnel of the Cheshire East Community Health Services on the ground floor, followed by Nantwich Health Centre and Tudor Surgery on the first floor. Bringing up the rear, on the top floor, was Kiltearn Medical Centre.

    The centre also has a minor operations suite and the nursing services and health visiting services are also based there.

    As additional information, a leaflet available at the various surgeries, told patients that the decor is: Cheshire East Community Health Services, yellow; Nantwich Health Centre, blue; Tudor Surgery, red (is that a bit like when ships' surgical decks were painted red so that the blood wasn't so obvious?); and Kiltearn Medical Centre, green.

    The name for the centre was chosen from 100 suggestions from local people, with Church View being the favourite.

   The leaflet says the centre has been developed by Henry Davidson Developments and Assura Properties "to be easily accessed by the patients and local people of Nantwich". It was built by Pochin (which the leaflet doesn't say).

   I counted around 40 new car parking spaces at the side of the centre, which may make up for those lost under the new building. Some of these are on land which was part of the old Crowsfoot Centre, so knocking down the old health centre to provide new spaces might not be necessary . . .   

   Two flights of stairs or lifts take people to their respective health centre. The lifts have already broken down !

THE centre was officially opened by the MP for Crewe and Nantwich, Mr Edward Timpson, in September 2008.

l Pictures: The view from the car park (top); the main entrance (above) standing back from the road to the Civic Hall car park; and the Dental Service entrance (left). 

For sale - still

(FEBRUARY 2010)

THE original health centre building, which backed on to Beam Street, is still on the market - 20 months after the primary care centre that replaced it was opened.

   Its windows are boarded and the plastic letters of its name are disappearing one by one from the wall.

   The local GPs' surgeries now operate (no pun intended) from the adjacent Church View PCC. Meanwhile, the old property and surrounding car park (totalling nearly three-quarters of an acre) are described as a redevelopment site by the Manchester agents who have it on the market, with a suggested purchase price of £900,000. Having checked with the new Cheshire East Council planning department the agents suggested uses for the property are offices, retail, residential or mixed use.

   A while ago I would have put my money on it becoming residential, but there are premises and parcels of land in town which used to be designated residential which are now being sold as or for offices.

   But how about this for an idea - a use not listed? Since the Church View premises were built on quite a number of the Civic Hall parking spaces, why don't the Powers That Be purchase the building, demolish it, and create replacement car parking? And we would be spared an eyesore on a road into town.         

(JUNE 2011)

THE old health centre has a new owner. A board on the Beam Street side of the building says the site has been acquired by Keyworker Homes (North West) Ltd of Blackpool working in association with Eventus Properties of Wigan.

    Proposals for the use of the building were outlined at two public events in June 2011. An information sheet for the events said that the recent Cheshire Retail Study has identified "capacity in Nantwich to accommodate an additional retailer, particularly in the food sector." 

Work progresses on M&S food store

Original letter | Updates page | Letters index page | Website index.