DESPITE a developer wanting to contribute funds to a new GP surgery in Bicester, its ambition may fall short due to plans already proposed which do not include having another GP practice in the town.

Portfolio Property Partners Ltd who got approval to develop new housing estate, Himley Village, next to Middleton Stoney Road, say that it will provide ‘financial contributions' to a GP surgery in North West Bicester.

Cherwell District Councillors met at last week’s planning committee to hear the latest developments with the application which they had initially approved back in March 2017.

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One concern they had about its Section 106 agreement was about whether provision of a GP surgery in NW Bicester, which the developer wants to support, would actually be delivered.

Conservative councillor Lyn Pratt, who serves Bicester North and Caversfield, does not think it will happen because of the proposal already made to build a ‘super-surgery’ in the south of the town.

She said: “I’m quite concerned about that (the GP surgery) because I don’t think it would happen. We had a similar problem in Kingsmere where all along houses were sold with the provision of a surgery and now that’s not going to happen – it’s going elsewhere - and that’s down to the decision of the doctors in the town.”

In September, Alchester Medical Group said they would prefer the £15m ‘super-surgery’ combining its surgeries Langford Medical Practice and Victoria House Surgery Langford with Montgomery House Surgery and Ambrosden Surgery, to be in Graven Hill.

However, Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group have the final say on where the 'super-surgery' will go and do not have plans to open a GP service in the north of the town.

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A spokesperson for CCG said: "The CCG has not approved Graven Hill as the site to combine the two Bicester GP practices, although the practices (Alchester Medical Group and Montgomery House Surgery) have stated that Graven Hill would be their preference.

"The new site – wherever is decided – will benefit from developer contributions from across Bicester and will accommodate the two practices to enable the growing population of the town to have access to primary care services.

"We are not expecting to have another GP practice in Bicester."

Independent county councillor Les Sibley, who serves Bicester West, welcomes the proposal of a surgery in NW Bicester, and believes big estates such as the Eco Town, which will eventually house around 20,000 people, need their own GPs.

Chris A’Court from Alchester Medical Group, said the plans put forward 'will provide the necessary capacity for all patients in and around Bicester for decades into the future' and that if someone comes forward with another GP practice plan, that they would expect to have talks about this.