Bealey Avenue medical centre approved

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 5

Bealey Avenue medical centre approved

A Christchurch City Council town-planning hearing has approved the establishment of an afterhours medical centre and urgent pharmacy in Bealey Avenue.

The decision comes after a hearing of an application by After Hours Properties, Ltd, to establish the centre on a site between Colombo Street and Caledonian Road.

The application on May 25 was for a single-storey building housing consultation rooms, two treatment areas, office and reception area. Six objections to the proposal were received.

The hearing panel considered that the establishment of the centre and after-hours pharmacy made good planning sense. The site was generally suitable for a project which was unlikely to be repeated elsewhere in the city.

. “It is accepted that the District Scheme has not permitted pharmacies to be established as part of medical centres. However, an urgent pharmacy is considered to be a

special case,” the finding said.

“The concerns of residents in this area are acknowledged by the panel. It is accepted that the addition of an urgent pharmacy will lead to some increase in the number of people calling at a site which contains an hour-hours medical centre. However, the advantage of locating these two uses on one site is seen to outweigh the disadvantages.”

Approving the application'would not be contrary to the public interest. The panel has ruled that the pharmacy’s opening hours should be limited to between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 9 p.m. to II p.m. on Fridays; 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays; and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays.

The urgent pharmacy will provide only a prescription service, and retail urgent medical supplies.

Other conditions included the installation of judder bars to slow traffic entering the site and the

shielding of lighting to avoid light shining on to adjoining residential properties. The medical centre’s operators will also make adequate provision for rubbish disposal and submit a detailed landscape plan for approval by the City Planner.

• The hearing panel has refused approval for a planned nurse practitioner clinic at 19 Marshland Road, Shirley. “The panel considers that the size is not suitable for the proposed clinic. It is really too small.. Even accepting a lesser parking standard of three spaces for each practitioner, the applicant had great difficulty providing nine satisfactory spaces. None of the three plans presented to the hearing were really satisfactory," the finding said. The proposed site for the clinic was also beyond the 100-metre distance from a commercial zone and would represent a further extension of the group of semi-commercial uses which already existed on the western side of Marshland Road.