Work starts on £5m Kensington health centre

A NEW £5m Neighbourhood Health Centre being built on Edge Lane in Liverpool has just started on site.

The centre in Kensington forms part of wider regeneration plans for the area, including the £350m Edge Lane Project that encompasses work to create a dual carriageway along the full length of Edge Lane, with new housing, over 1m sq ft of commercial and retail space being developed by Derwent Holdings and new community facilities.

Graham Pink, chief executive of LSHP, said: “We are delighted that the building work has begun for this important new health centre, which will provide members of the local community with modern, friendly and easily accessible healthcare services, located close to where they live.”

The new centre will contain services such as dental, pharmacy, childhood immunisations and vaccinations, and blood tests. It will also provide patients with longer opening hours for GP services.

It has been designed by Liverpool-based architects Taylor Young and is being built by Galliford Try.

Planning for the Edge Lane centre was approved in August last year and funding for both the Edge Lane centre and a new mental health centre at Walton was approved in November.

LSHP is a public-private partnership which was set up in 2004 to deliver new health facilities in Liverpool and Sefton. The partners in LSHP include Liverpool and Sefton councils, three local healthcare trusts, Gallford Try, NHS property company Assura and Bilfinger Berger Project Investments.

Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, said: “I’m really pleased that work on this fantastic scheme is now underway.

“The new centre will provide an invaluable resource for local people and is the latest piece in the jigsaw for Kensington’s regeneration.”