VILLAGERS are in the dark about whether a new pharmacy is still in the pipeline.

Your Worcester News previously reported that plans for a chemist in Kempsey, near Worcester, close to the crossroads of Main Road, Church Street and Old Road North, were submitted to NHS Worcestershire last year by Bradford-based Oakley Enterprises.

The trust initially turned down the proposal but the applicants successfully appealed in April.

Doctors at Kempsey Surgery, which already provides a drugs dispensary, fear a competing pharmacy could put a question mark over the practice’s existence because it would no longer be cost-effective to run.

Concerns were raised that it could be housed at the village shop when owner Bob Singh submitted a planning application to convert a spare living room at Original Stores in Church Street into retail space.

But Mr Singh has assured GPs this is not the case.

He said: “It’s purely to create more retail space. We have a spare room and we want to knock down a wall to make the shop bigger. It’s not for a pharmacy.”

In the meantime, a possible location for any new chemist remains a mystery and time is running out for Oakley Enterprises to gain full consent for its plans.

Dr Mark Smith, senior partner at Kempsey Surgery, said: “We’re all still in the dark. The applicants have to convert conditional approval to full approval within six months. They haven’t got back to NHS Worcestershire, which they need to do before October 15. If they don’t, the immediate prospect of a pharmacy comes to an end.”

Dr Smith said the long-term aim was for pharmacy provision to be incorporated with a new medical centre which might be built as part of future development plans for the village.

A spokesman for NHS Worcestershire confirmed it had not yet received confirmation from Oakley Enterprises of its intention to press ahead with the plans.