Plans submitted to expand Belford pharmacy

An application has been submitted by the Belford Chemist to expand its West Street premises into the neighbouring property.

It is proposed to create a new dispensary facility in the existing ground floor lounge of the Farmhouse Guest House.

The existing pharmacy would also be updated to include a new consultation room, staff room, store room and a comfortably sized retail and service area.

Owner Jonathon McGill said: “It’s a very small pharmacy and there is not a great deal of space to operate.

"We don’t have a consultation room which is quite crucial these days for providing NHS services so we were looking at how we could extend the building and the next door building became available and that seemed an ideal fit.

"We would hope that once we have got the consulting room in situ and the improved dispensary we will be able to offer a much better array of services. The NHS is pushing more services through pharmacies and we want to be able to keep up with that agenda.”

He also hopes that it will also help to take some pressure off Belford Medical Practice.

“If we’re in a position to support the GP practice that’s great,” he said. “First and foremost, our pharmacy is very tired and needs to be updated.

"With the extra space we’ll be able to provide a better dispensary service in terms of the stock we’re able to keep and in terms of deliveries.”

An application seeking change of use permission has been submitted to Northumberland County Council.

"We’ve got builders and electricians lined up and ready to go so we’re just waiting on building regulations and planning permission to drop into place,” said Mr McGill. “If we get the go ahead I would hope to get it done by March.”

Several letters of support for the scheme have already been lodged on the council planning portal.

Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson, chairman of Belford Parish Council and local ward county councillor, said: “I fully support these plans to expand the chemist in Belford. The chemist is a crucial service for the village and surrounding area, and supports vital rural jobs.”

Kerry Noble, parish council vice chairman, added: “I fully support this application to extend the premises of the Belford Pharmacy, which is vital to this community.

"It may also encourage more residents to consult the chemist, concerning more minor ailments, thus alleviating some of the mounting pressure on our medical practice.”

Another supporter, Sarah Brewis, commented: “This will be a brilliant addition to the village.”

Sue Dyer added: “I strongly support the expansion of this valuable resource for the village. The community can only benefit from this development.”

And Saffron Prior said: “Fully support extension of the pharmacy, this will provide benefits to the community. Great idea.”

Pressure on NHS services has left patients struggling to get prescriptions in some parts of the county.

Cllr Gordon Castle told councillors last autumn that queues for pharmacy and GP services in Alnwick were so bad, residents would sometimes find the medicines they needed were unavailable by the time they reached the front.