Petition to keep Glastonbury's high street pharmacy

A petition to keep a pharmacy in a Somerset high street has been launched after it was announced another chemist will close.

The Glastonbury Boots store is the second pharmacy to shut in the town in the last three months.

It will shut its doors on 14 October as part of nationwide plans to close 300 stores, leaving just one other pharmacy in the town.

Emma King, a local business owner said: "We need a chemist on our high street."

She continued: "We know the Boots store is closing, that decision has been made - we just want a replacement pharmacy on our high street as soon as possible.

"It's a dramatic decision to close another pharmacy for a town the size of Glastonbury and people are not happy.

"So many older people rely on the service and there's a massive demand for it in the town - especially with all the new houses being built.

"In August this year, we had three pharmacies in Glastonbury - by next week we will just have one. That says it all."

When the Boots closes next week, Glastonbury will have one chemist which is based at the doctors' surgery on Feversham Lane.

Concerns have been raised by residents that Knights Pharmacy in the doctors is "quite small" and cannot deal with the demands of the town.

Neighbouring town Street, which is just over two miles away, has three pharmacies.

Boots says it will make no redundancies as part of the closure and staff will be moved to other branches.

It added it did not comment on individual closures but that the shutting of stores was part of efforts to consolidate its business by closing 300 stores across the UK.

The government said it was monitoring access to pharmaceutical services and it had announced almost £650m of additional funding for the sector, on top of the £2.6bn it provided every year.

The NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board, which is responsible for pharmacy services in the county, has been contacted by the BBC.

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