MEDICS at a cramped health centre have said the need for larger premises is getting desperate as the population in the town grows.

Doctors and staff at Shipston Medical Centre are hoping a planning application for a new £3.5 million medical centre in Shoulderway Lane on the outskirts of the town gets the go ahead when it is presented to Stratford District Council within the next few weeks.

Practice manager Rachel Vial said the service had outgrown its main building some years ago in Badgers Crescent and a house opposite, 8 Donnington Road, was purchased and some services run from there.

However even that building has been outgrown and staff fear some services may end up being cut to cope with the growing population.

"The fabric of the building is past its best too. It was originally built in the 1960s and has been extended. We have looked at different locations but there is nothing of sufficient size. If this application is not successful we will carry on looking for an alternative site," said Mrs Vial.

David Wilson Homes is hoping to develop the area of land and their agents RCA Properties and Services are due to submit two plans soon. One a full application of 98 houses and outline plans for a surgery and another for 104 houses and no surgery.

RCA managing director Sian Griffiths said the twin-tracked application was a result of feed back where some people had said they didn't want a surgery in that location.

"However, it is David Wilson Homes' preference for a scheme with a surgery on it as it carries material weight," she told members of Shipston Town Council at their planning meeting.

If the application is successful the developers would sell the piece of land to the medical centre at low cost as the practice could not afford to pay residential land prices.

Dr Jane Gilder said the number of patients had grown over the years from 8,000 to 11,500. The practice area also covered an eight-mile radius of Shipston and recent approved planning applications within that radius showed the population was going to grow significantly. She also said service needs were changing as the town had 25 percent of its population aged 75 and over.

"We need a new building to go forward for the next 20 years and space to grow," she said.

District councillor Jeff Kenner was assured that the new centre would not compete for services with Ellen Badger Hospital as they covered different bands of care. He was also assured that the hospital would not be closed and sold to pay for the new building.

The new centre would be three times the size of the current building and would house 10 consulting rooms, three training rooms and seven treatment rooms.