\n Cotman House Dental Surgery, near Norwich Cathedral, could close if an application for its conversion is given the green light on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The site’s landlord, Dean Shields, wants to turn the surgery – which has been there for 22 years – into a two-bedroom flat to align with the rest of Cotman House.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the possible loss of the surgery has caused outrage among its 1,500 patients, who fear they would not be able to find a dentist of the same quality as Jonathan Frost, who runs the practice.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 100 of his patients wrote to planners for Norwich City Council pleading for their beloved surgery to be saved.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the objections officials at Norwich City Council recommended the plans be approved.\n<\/p>\n
\n One objector said: “Jonathan is more than a dentist. He cares, he knows us, we don’t get shifted from him to a hygienist, he does all our care himself.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Another patient said: “This change of use will deprive some 1,500 Norwich residents of vital healthcare.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It will be impossible for this number of patients to find alternative dental care.”\n<\/p>\n
\n But council planners said in their recommendation report: “These details however, while of merit, are not material to the consideration of the change of use, as this policy is used to cover a wide range of community facilities.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The application has also led to tension between Mr Shields and Mr Frost.\n<\/p>\n
\n In recently released documents, Mr Shields argued Mr Frost is looking to relocate his practice.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Mr Frost, who was unaware of the planning application, argued this was “completely untrue”.\n<\/p>\n
\n In response to the document, a spokesman for Mr Frost said: “At no point has Mr Frost decided to relocate.\n<\/p>\n
\n “On the contrary, he has stated at every opportunity that he wishes to renew his lease and that, excepting an agreed rent increase, which he recognises.”\n<\/p>\n
\n City Hall’s planning committee will decide on the plans on Thursday, March 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cotman House Dental Surgery, near Norwich Cathedral, could close if an application for its conversion is given the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-322597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}