Former GP surgery in Weymouth to be turned into flats
Abbotsbury Road GP surgery in Weymouth closed in 2019
Consulting rooms at former Abbotsbury Road GP surgery in Weymouth are to be converted into homes.
The use of the building as a surgery ended in March 2019 due to staff shortages and problems with recruitment. All the former patients were transferred to other practices.
Dorset Council has now approved a planning request from Dr Suzanne Roberts to convert the rooms at the 24 Abbotsbury Road property into five one and two-bed flats.
An initial application for seven homes had met with widespread opposition.
The planning application said the external appearance of the building will be largely unaltered apart from some new windows.
An adjoining consulting room at No 26, which is above the chemists shop, had previously been granted permission for conversion into a one-bed flat with a living/kitchen room and a shower room. The rooms were previously linked to the surgery building at No 24.
The application for the most recent conversion claims that the flats will be in keeping with other buildings in the area and a good use the property, adding that the modest number of homes will help meet the acknowledged local need for smaller properties close to the town centre.
Weymouth town council had objected to the original application claiming that it was an over-development, had inadequate parking provision and a lack of amenity space, but dropped the view when the size of the scheme was reduced.
The applicants had proved to the council that trying to market the building as a commercial premises had been unsuccessful despite dropping the price.
The building has been a GP Practice from 1987 and it remained empty since the March 2019 closure.
Said a letter to Dorset Council backing the application: “Without the option to change its use to residential, this building will remain empty for the foreseeable future, with the accompanying dilapidation expected in a Victorian building of this type, making it even harder for any viable future use of the building and risking the need for demolishment if it becomes unsafe.”