RESIDENTS have criticised plans for a new £10 million health centre for not providing patient parking.

The latest designs for the proposed Biddulph Primary Care Centre were revealed at three consultation events yesterday.

The centre, due to be built on the current Wharf Road car park, would take up around half the site and provide 60 staff parking spaces. But it will not include any patient parking.

Resident Stanley Jukes's house in High Street will look directly on to the new building.

Mr Jukes, aged 64, said: "I am mostly concerned about where people are going to park.

"This is going to take away half the car park and not give any spaces to patients."

The new health centre will replace three GP surgeries in the town.

A planning application is due to be submitted later this month, with a view to starting building work in the autumn.

Developers hope the centre will open its doors in late 2011.

Immi Gandhi, from NHS North Staffordshire's development partner Prima 200, said patients would have to pay to park on the remaining section of Wharf Road car park, use the car park of a new Sainsbury's store currently under construction or park in the surrounding streets. He added: "Sainsbury's is going to be offering two hours' free parking and they will have 350 spaces.

"The amount of car parking in the town will actually have increased by the time the centre opens.

"These plans were developed with members of the public at every opportunity through consultations over the last 18 months."

Visitors to the last consultation of the day, at Biddulph Valley Leisure Centre, criticised the event because the project's architect and a model of the centre, that had been at the other sessions, were not available.

They were also concerned at changes to the design of the building since the last consultations, including the addition of a fourth floor. A proposal to house the town's library in the centre has also been dropped.

The new facility is being developed under a Local Improvement Finance Trust scheme and will provide services to 21,000 patients. As well as GP surgeries it will house an outpatients service, podiatry, phlebotomy, district nurses, a pharmacy and a minor ailments walk-in surgery. It will open from 8am to 8pm.

Margaret Jones, aged 69, from Knypersley, said: "We should have had a full-scale model and the architect, but they aren't here.

"The consultation today is over completely different plans and I don't think this gives us enough opportunity to address them."

Biddulph resident Diane Casewell, aged 63, said: "We don't know why they have added a fourth floor."

NHS North Staffordshire project manager Maureen Turfrey said: "A fourth floor was added because the architects felt it is an important building and with three floors it was not prominent enough. We are asking for public views so that we can incorporate them where possible."

Anyone who would like to comment on the plans or find out more can contact Maureen Turfrey on 0845 602 6772.