Farron fights 'devil in detail' to save Sedbergh Health Centre bid

MP Tim Farron has called up on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to reduce the list of 53 recommendations and conditions placed upon Sedbergh's doctors as plans for a new Health Centre reach the crunch stage today (Tuesday 9 June).

It is expected that the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority's planners will recommend approval for the proposed new Health Centre on the site of the old auction mart in the town, but that there will be a detailed list of conditions and recommendations some of which may make it extremely difficult for the centre to be built.

Last month, Tim Farron chaired a public meeting of over two hundred and fifty local people in Sedbergh which saw unanimous community support for the proposal. Tim argues that the National Park should now clear the way for the development to be approved and not put unnecessary obstacles in the way…

Amongst the details that Mr Farron and the doctors consider to be excessive are a condition that the convenience store next to the health centre could only sell a very limited range of goods; that a new footpath be built on third-party land and that the new site has more restrictive delivery conditions than any other similar site in the area.

"It is important that the planning committee get this right, but its also important that there are not so many obstacles in the way of the doctors that the centre simply never gets built. The whole town of Sedbergh is right behind this proposal, its crucial that we don't allow the detail to stop it happening" said Mr Farron.