Medical practice could move to former Education offices
A MEDICAL centre and pharmacy, as well as seven flats, could be created at the former Education Office in the Grange if planning permission is granted.
The States-owned property is currently on the market for £1.75m. and it is listed as being under offer.
A planning application to convert the building has now been submitted by Queens Road Medical Practice.
Will Pierce, chief cxecutive of Queens Road, said: ‘QRMP is exploring, with the States, the feasibility of applying for a change of use application on the former Education building on the Grange. We are assessing whether we can transform the building to be Queens Road Medical Centre’s new home.’
The practice is based further up the hill in a partially-listed former town house.
Under the proposals for the former Education facility, there would be parking for 55 cars in front of the main building.
Inside the building would be 22 consulting rooms across two floors.
Five flats would be on the third floor, while one flat would be on the ground floor and one on the second floor. Exact details of the flat layouts was not included in the application.
The property has been on the market since March 2020.
‘Although interest in the site was initially strong, and a few tentative offers were received, such offers were subject to various planning conditions and finance,’ a document in the application states.
‘That said, following further investigation and due diligence, such offers were withdrawn.’
Some of the reasons for the withdrawals included the listed trees on the site, the cumbersome nature of a listed building and high conversion costs.
‘The former school hall is highly protected and forms a relatively sizeable chunk of the property,’ the document states.
‘Some of the developers were worried how this could be converted into a residential unit which would meet the modern day standards. Of particular concern were the height of the room and stained glass windows, both of which would make heating inefficient.’
Within the practice’s design, a lightweight internal mezzanine would create an administration hub for the building.
‘This would not require the fabric of the space to be affected and the mezzanine would continue to expose the important architectural elements that are currently protected,’ the document states.
Many of the rooms in the building are quite small and it would be a struggle to make them comply with modern flat standards, but they were suitable sizes for consulting rooms.
The new suite was compared with the existing practice which it was noted had only 30 parking spaces and it would be hard to extend the already-extended building further.
The application also revealed that the practice had considered a number of other sites – the former Braye Lodge Hotel, land opposite Target Tyres, land behind St Martin’s M&S, Lukis House, the former Channel Island Tyres site, land behind the Doghouse, St Martin’s Hotel and the group's current Longfrie surgery site.
All of these had issues, while the former Education building would meet all of the practice’s needs.
n The planning application can be viewed at https://www.gov.gg/liveplanningapplications.
