HOPES of building a huge new medical centre in Worcester have suffered a setback after the city council turned down the bid.

Health chiefs in the county had planned to amalgamate three GP practices and a pharmacy in a three-storey building beside Lidl in Newtown Road.

But fears that the site - earmarked by the city for employment use - would not create new jobs led the council's planning committee to reject the proposal.

The blow comes after a funding crisis led South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust to suspend plans to build the centre and seven others in the county.

Planning officer Peter Yates told the committee yesterday that officers were "very concerned" about the loss of employment land and said that the city would "really struggle to replace it" if the centre went ahead.

But councillors were at odds over whether the development, which would include facilities for minor surgical procedures to be carried out, would create jobs.

Employment

Coun Mike Layland: "The number of people working at this medical centre could be in excess of that found in what we call an employment setting."

But Coun Paul Denham said any new staff, such as doctors and nurses, would be specially trained professionals from outside the city.

"I'm not sure there will be one less unemployed person in Worcester as a result of this centre. That's what employment land is about," he said.

Councillors were generally unconcerned with the large amount of parking on offer. They feared repeating the problems seen at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

But they agreed with officers that the PCT should assess whether the centre could be built on the site of one of the three existing surgeries at St Martin's Gate, Spring Gardens and Haresfield House, in Bath Road.

The surgeries were described as "dilapidated and dated" by PCT chairman, David Barlow, in yesterday's Evening News.

The application was rejected by eight votes to three.