Work on Borehamwood's new £1million medical centre will start early next year, after the borough council agreed to give it planning permission.

When complete, around 10,000 patients will be treated at the new centre, which will also feature a dental surgery, an opticians and a small surgical theatre.

There may also be an office for Hertsmere Primary Care Trust (PCT), the organisation responsible for delivering all NHS services in Hertsmere.

The centre will be built in the Boulevard 25 shopping centre, between the Allied Carpets store and the back of shops in Shenley Road, and construction work should start next spring. Patients currently using the Grove Road Surgery will be transferred to the centre, and there will be space for thousands of people living in housing developments due to be built over the next few years.

Karen Story, the practice manager at Grove Road, said: "It will be a vast improvement for our patients we are delighted."

Beth Kelly, the chairman of Hertsmere PCT, said she was relieved that the centre had been given planning permission, but added that she still hoped public transport links to the facility would be improved.

A scheme to build a new bus terminal in the Boulevard 25 shopping centre was dropped in August, because it was thought that, with two existing terminals in Borehamwood town centre, there was no need for a third.

Plans to build the centre were first put forward in 1999, but were put on hold when ownership of the Boulevard 25 shopping centre changed.

Since the centre's new owners Hercules Property took over, a series of improvements have been announced, and the centre is currently being given a major facelift.

An extra retail unit is also being built, next to the Lidl supermarket, and Boulevard 25's manager, Bernard Davy, said a potential tenant was already close to signing a lease to move in.

He warned that customers would not see work being carried out on the site of the new medical centre for some time, as underground services, such as drainage and electricity, had to be installed before construction could start.

But he said he was proud that his idea of building a medical facility in the shopping centre was at last coming to fruition, as it would benefit the people of Borehamwood.

"I think this will be very good for the future of the community, and for Borehamwood's high street. It should bring a lot of people back to the high street."

Mr Davy came up with the idea of having a health centre in Boulevard 25 when he was visiting a shopping mall in the United States. When he came home he asked the owners and Hertsmere Council what they thought, and they supported the idea.

December 24, 2001 13:00