Health facilities could be built on Oswestry’s controversial five-acre site after all if alternative land can be identified to swop for a town green, it has been claimed.

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has called on Oswestry Town Council and Shropshire Council to look at the option of identifying an alternative site for a green which could be swopped for the five-acre site.

It would free up the land to push ahead with phase two of the planned Oswestry health village which would bring sheltered housing, nursing and community beds, and a new maternity unit to the town.

Health bosses had hoped to use the five-acre site off Gobowen Road for the health centre but their plans had to be revised after the land was registered as a green.

The former Cambrian Railway Works building was put forward as an alternative and phase one is now under way.

But Mr Paterson has now revived his regular health meetings in Oswestry in a bid to push ahead with phase two.

Designated

He said: “There are possible sites but the obvious site is as close as possible to the new health centre. One of the sites is the old five-acre site which got designated as a green.”

He added: “Phase two has drifted into the fans and no-one is really pushing it along.”

Mr Paterson said he launched a revival of his health meetings in Oswestry this week following local authority changes and the replacement of senior staff at the Shropshire County Primary Care Trust.

Representatives from Oswestry Town Council, Shropshire Council, Shropshire County PCT, the Orthopaedic Hospital and various local GP practices attended to discuss progress on the health project.

Mr Paterson said “It was good to hear that phase one will be completed in December 2010 and will include X-ray and plastering facilities.

“It was clear that there was a general lack of awareness of phase two and I am determined to see sheltered housing, nursing beds and community beds free at the point of use, combined with a possible site for the maternity unit when the current one comes to the end of its life in eight years’ time.”

He added it was agreed there would be another meeting in two months, and asked the councils to look at identifying an alternative site for a local green which could be swopped for the five-acre site.

By Suzanne Roberts