SHIPSTON will get the new medical centre it "urgently" needs after councillors gave it the green light at a meeting last night.

At the meeting of Stratford District Council's planning committee, councillors voted in favour of a new medical centre being built on land to the south of Campden Road.

Councillors also approved plans for 95 homes on the same site after Ainscough Strategic Land agreed to make land available on the site for the centre if the homes were approved.

The site will be adjacent to land that will soon see a supermarket, 54 houses, care and retirement homes and a petrol station.

Speaking to the Cotswold Journal earlier this week, Rachel Vial, practice manager, said: “The medical centre is based in a building at the end of Badgers Crescent. It was built in 1969, has been extended twice and is not fit for purpose anymore. For a long time we’ve had problems with a shortage of space and for years we’ve been talking about getting a new place. NHS guidelines say that for the amount of people we treat we should have a building twice the size of what we have.

“We’re a very busy practice so we are very grateful to the town council and district council for their support, and to everyone else who has supported us."

Shipston ward councillor, Jeff Kenner, said the approval was a "huge win" for Shipston.

He said: "We will have a new 21st century medical centre, twice the current capacity, offering even better services with ample parking right next to the new supermarket and accessible by foot and bus. We will keep the Ellen Badger Hospital and its services. The new site for the medical centre will relieve residents of the Donnington Road area of the huge parking problems they experience."