Plans have been submitted to turn a Bristol GP surgery that is set to close its doors next week into bedsits.
Northville Family Practice in Filton Avenue will close its doors on Monday (September 30) as the current contract for primary care services is set to expire.
But a planning application has already been submitted to South Gloucestershire Council to turn the building into two seven-bed HMOs.
According to the Design and Access Statement a HMO providing 14 rooms over two properties would have less of an impact on traffic in the area.
It reads: “The HMO can be considered less of an impact than the existing and previous use as a doctors surgery with nine treatment rooms all seeing approx. 10 persons a day equating to 90 trips a day by patients.”
In the two weeks the application has been live on South Gloucestershire Council’s website, there have been three objections submitted.
One from Kirstie Barnes called the plans “ludicrous”.
She said: “You can't add extra parking without changing the outside of the building, you can't make less traffic by making 8am-6pm appointment based traffic to 14 bedrooms, possibly 28 people with cars.”
It will be down to South Gloucestershire Council’s planning officers, or the development committee to decide whether to approve the plans.
The decision to close Northville Family Practice was made by Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (BNSSG CCG) earlier this year.
It was also agreed to close Bishopston Medical Practice in Nevil Road.
In making its decision to close the practices, the CCG said supporting patients to transfer to a neighbouring practice was the "best long-term solution".
"Services at the Bishopston and Northville practices are commissioned on short-term ‘Alternative Provider Medical Services’ contracts, following the previous providers’ decision to hand back their contracts," a spokesman said.
"These services are currently provided by BrisDoc, which has ensured patients have received a good primary care service in the interim, however it has always been our intention that when these contracts expired, we would review long-term options to provide sustainable, high-quality care for patients.
“Having carefully reviewed a number of options and considered feedback from patients and other stakeholders, our conclusion was that supporting people to transfer to a neighbouring practice offered the best long-term solution for patients.”
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