George welcomes GP and Primary Care facility and affordable homes on St Clare site: but urges Council to let Penzance decide the future of the remainder of site

West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, has welcomed plans for a new health centre and for affordable homes on Cornwall Council’s current Penzance home, the One Stop Shop, at St Clare.

He reiterated his call for the Council to let Penzance rather than Truro decide how the remainder of the small site is disposed of. He believes the ambition to develop Community Health facilities – following the closure of Poltair Hospital – should not be frustrated.

Mr George said, “It is good to see that a brand new and modern GP and primary care facility will be developed on the site. This is encouraging news. The Health Centre has been a long time coming. Whilst I acknowledge that GPs will commit private investments to make this happen, I know they will respect that this is still a community resource and a public health facility and will want to take account of local and patient opinion.

“It is also encouraging news that some of the site will be used for affordable housing. But, I hope that we can extract more rented and genuinely affordable homes when it gets to planning.

“With regards to the remainder of the site, the Council should understand that you can only dispose of such public assets once. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. So decisions on disposal need to be made with care and with the best interests of the local community in mind. That’s why I will encourage the Council to let Penzance rather than Truro decide.”