NHS Highland<\/a> recently confirmed that it is unable to support the delivery of a primary healthcare facility in Tornagrain in the short term, making the surgery \u2018undeliverable\u2019.<\/p>\nDevelopers are now hoping to bring the building into active commercial use rather than leaving the space vacant indefinitely.<\/p>\n
Having reported “strong interest” in opening a reformer pilates studio at the site, the application would also offer flexibility to convert the space into shops or other businesses.<\/p>\n
However the developer states to be willing to accept a planning condition that prevents the unit from being used for food retail.<\/p>\n
The statement reads: \u201cCondition 4 of the existing consent (ref: 23\/03750\/MSC) restricts Unit 65 to use as a doctor’s surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat restriction was imposed following the terms of the application and a request from THC’s Transport Planning Team, who confirmed that the parking provision for the unit had been calculated on the basis of one consulting room at the standard rate of five spaces, which is met by the five allocated spaces for Unit 65.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reference to a doctor\u2019s surgery reflected early discussions with a local GP Practice, which at the time appeared to have support from NHS Highland. However, this has not come forward and a health centre is programmed for a later phase of the wider Tornagrain development.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the building was completed, the unit has remained vacant. During the construction of the building dialogue continued with the GP Practice and latterly directly with NHS Highland.<\/p>\n
\u201cNHS Highland have now confirmed that they are unable to support delivery of a primary healthcare facility in Tornagrain at this stage and nor is one likely in the short term.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiscussions will continue with NHS Highland over future provision of primary healthcare facilities in Tornagrain, but it is neither viable to retain the proposed surgery empty for an indefinite period nor is it likely that it would be sufficient in scale when a facility is delivered as the community will have grown in the interim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe loss of a community facility is however a material consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public interest is better served by the unit being brought into active use for a beneficial and community serving purpose, whether as a pilates studio providing health and wellbeing services to the local community, or as a Class 1A commercial use adding to the vitality of the local centre, than by the unit remaining vacant indefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tornagrain. Picture: Gary Anthony. A unit originally meant to host a doctor\u2019s surgery in Tornagrain could be transformed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[84,102,2960,16338,913,19490,56,54,55,7741],"class_list":["post-613832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-business","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-highland-council","tag-latest-news","tag-nairnshire","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-update-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}