Work will start on Oswestry’s £30 million health village in January now that a crucial land deal has been agreed, NHS bosses revealed today.
The development will include a range of facilities from a GP surgery to minor injuries unit and will be housed in part of the Cambrian Railway Works building off Gobowen Road.
The scheme is expected to take 15 months.
Advantage West Midlands bought the site four years ago, hoping to transform it into a health village.
But the plans hit the buffers more than three years ago when an application to register it as a town green was made.
The project was also held up while Shropshire County Council bosses ironed out a land deal with Network Rail to buy the Cambrian branch railway line from Gobowen to Porth-y-waen.
The purchase of the line was vital to the project because part of that land will be used for an access to the medical centre.
County council bosses have revealed that the deal has now been finalised and today a Shropshire Primary Care Trust spokeswoman welcomed the news.
She said: “This has always been crucial to the plan, and means we can press ahead with our programme, with builders on site in January for a 15-month contract to complete the new health centre.”
The deal also means plans to develop a heritage railway and a possible extension to national cycle route number 31 through Oswestry can also go ahead.
The county council is currently negotiating leases with both the Cambrian Railways Society and Cambrian Railways Trust to enable their joint heritage rail project to progress on the branch line.
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