MORE than a year ago at the hustings in Knutsford George Osborne reaffirmed his ongoing support for the long-awaited health and wellbeing centre for Knutsford.

Since then, while Knutsford residents have witnessed even more changes in provision in areas such as stroke services being moved further away and more cuts – disguised as service improvements – there has been little sign of any progress on the centre.

Until, that is, last week, when apparently a meeting was held between George Osborne and healthcare chiefs, during which co-location of the GP practices was discussed.

However respondents to all past surveys indicated that they were not in favour of co-location of the GP surgeries for the obvious reason that they are currently conveniently located to serve patients in the different catchment areas.

Reluctantly it was agreed that this was a price worth paying if we would see the return of lost services together with new facilities.

However from the outset the Bexton Road site was rejected as it was recognised as being too small to accommodate the proposed centre, and the co-located GP practices.

Despite this drawback it now seems to be the chosen site for the co-location of the GP surgeries, but there is no mention of any other facilities, so among the various cutbacks will one of them be our long awaited health and wellbeing centre?

I ask as the East Cheshire Clinical Commission Group apparently needs to rebalance its books and make savings of £9 million following cuts in government funding.

Maybe our MP George Osborne (holder of the nation’s purse strings) would like to comment on what is happening.

Mabel Taylor Malvern Road Knutsford