Plan to ease parking woes at Blackpool health centre

The scheme, which has been submitted to Blackpool Council for consideration, would see an additional 50 car parking spaces provided at South Shore Primary Care Centre on Lytham Road.

The development has been earmarked for a piece of land which has been vacant since a church which stood there was demolished.

The site is owned by NHS Property Services and has previously had outline planning permission for houses.

Documents say insufficient parking for people attending the health centre "has led to years of issues with road parking and congestion along Dunes Avenue."

It is hoped the proposed scheme, which has been put forward on behalf of Highfield Surgery and Stonyhill Medical Practice which are both based at the health centre, will help alleviate the situation.

A planning statement accompanying the submission says: "The application involves the change of use of a vacant piece of land in order to create new parking spaces for patient use relating to the medical centre.

"Parking provision on the existing site is currently very restricted which creates implications on neighbouring roads.

"This application seeks to extend the existing NHS patient car park in order to provide maximum additional patient parking spaces and assist with congestion on Dunes Avenue.

"This proposal will create significant additional patient car parking to service South Shore Medical Centre."

Developers say the proposed layout maximises the number of parking bays which can be provided "so the associated congestion to Dunes Avenue will be significantly reduced providing a positive impact on the surrounding area."

The application will be considered by town hall planners at a future date.