Burnham GP surgery public forum held by representatives

A public forum to discuss the possible relocation of the Burnham Surgery to the Burnham Waters development was held on Friday.

Burnham Town Council organised the meeting to allow the decision-makers the chance to hear the residents’ opinions on this matter.

Crowds: residents gathered outside (Image: Nick Skeens)

Almost 450 people were in attendance, the Ormiston Rivers Academy auditorium was at capacity and almost 200 people stood outside to hear the discussion.

Panellists included Sir John Whittingdale, Carol Banham and Dr Rahman from Burnham Surgery, Dan Doherty from the local NHS Health Authority and Ian Holloway from Burnham Waters, who was later joined by his planning consultant, Stuart Rowe.

Samantha Glover, CEO of Healthwatch, which is tasked with ensuring the NHS fully engages with public opinion, chaired the meeting.

Representatives: Sir John Whittingdale and Samantha Glover (Image: Nick Skeens)

Maldon District Council didn’t send a representative to the meeting and said: “As the Local Planning Authority [it] must ensure it acts, and is seen to act, fairly and impartially to all development proposals that may be forthcoming and therefore it is not appropriate for officers to attend the local meeting.”

A decision has not yet been made about relocating the current surgery, which handles more than 10,000 patients when it had originally been designed for 6000.

The representatives confirmed a full consultation would be held before any decision was made.

A petition from residents now has 1300 signatures opposing the proposed relocation.

Mayor: Duncan Rawlinson opened the meeting (Image: Nick Skeens)

Town Mayor Duncan Rawlinson said: “We chose the biggest seated venue in town.

“As our local MP said, this was by far the largest public meeting he’d ever witnessed in his entire constituency, let alone Burnham. It was certainly the biggest we’d ever seen.

“Usually, even for the most controversial issues, we rarely get more than a couple of dozen at Town Council meetings.

Questions: councillor Wendy Stamp raised a question (Image: Nick Skeens)

“We knew this was going to be far bigger, and the town councillors, all elected, unpaid volunteers, worked incredibly hard to organise a highly-professional event at the biggest local venue we could find.

“Thanks must also go to the office staff, led by Chief Officer Nichola Payne, for their enormous contribution, and to local resident Tim Aves, who provided an excellent sound system free-of-charge.

“And of course, to Ormiston Rivers Academy, who gave us access at such short notice and in the middle of summer recess.”

Capacity: the venue was full (Image: Nick Skeens)