Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

A Trowbridge dental unit wants to move out of town.
Danescroft Commercial Developments, who are 'marketing' the new units at the Marina Local Centre, want planning permission to change the use of unit 2 from retail to a dental surgery.

If permission is granted then Community Dental Centres Ltd., who currently run the Adcroft Surgery, will move in. There will be 6 dental 'chairs' within the new building which is two more than they have at the moment. Accordingly the number of people they could have on their books would increase from 12,500 to 20,000.

If permission is not given the company are threatening to quit the Trowbridge area, which already has a shortage of NHS dentists.

The current lease at Adcroft expires in June 2006 and so they want permission by mid-January so that work on converting the building and bringing in the dental surgery equipment could be done in the spring. An opening date is proposed for June.

Two of the other units are likely to be used as takeaways; one Chinese and one fish and chips. The other unit could be a small convenience store.

Anyone wishing to comment on the application (either 'for'or 'against') should contact WWDC planning department, email planning@westwiltshire.gov.uk quoting reference number 05/02737.

The move would seem to be good for the Trowbridge area but would, yet again, increase the use of private transport as Staverton has such poor public transport links. Also, this idea shows yet again just how un-reliable the projections of developers really are!!