Lidl to demolish GP surgery to build bigger store

A GP surgery with 6,000 patients is set to be demolished to make way for a Lidl store.

Hawthorn Medical Centre, in Fallowfield Retail Park in Manchester, must find a new home after Manchester City Council approved the supermarket's plan to knock it down.

The surgery said the news had been a "shock" both to the practice and the NHS.

Lidl, which owns the land, said a "significant notice period" had been agreed so the surgery could find a new home.

Lidl was given planning permission to redevelop the retail park in 2021,but the Hawthorn was set to be protected from demolition.

Now Lidl want to use the land to build a bigger shop.

City council planners said "the loss of the medical centre is clearly regrettable and concerns surrounding its loss are fully realised" but recommended the bid be approved.

“Under the circumstances, the [council] has no control over its loss or long-term future and is not a matter that can be given weight in the determination of this application,” a report for the authority’s planning committee meeting on Thursday added.

Lidl said it had "been in close conversation with the medical centre regarding the plans".

It said it would "endeavour to keep the community updated on plans as they progress".

In February, Dr Laura Neilson from Hawthorn’s parent organisation Hope Citadel told a meeting of concerned patients: "This was genuinely a surprise to us, it was genuinely a shock to get the news of the decision.

"And I think it was a shock to the NHS as well, it’s definitely been a shock to the community."

She said they had had a series of meetings with Greater Manchester NHS and with local councillors to stress that an alternative site needed to be found.

She said the building was "a little bit small for us" and that there were more people looking to go on its books.

"We want to carry on being as creative and innovative as we can be, we would hope to be moving to a bigger site," she added.