A COUNCILLOR has called for reassurances over the future of a planned new health centre in Burntwood amid fears it could lose £1.1million of funding if the project does not progress soon.
The facility has been planned for a former youth centre site at Cherry Orchard following the closure of a temporary site at the neighbouring Burntwood Leisure Centre.
But despite bosses of the Integrated Care Board telling councillors back in 2023 that the health centre would be up and running by the end of last year, no spades have gone in the ground so far on the development.
Now Cllr Steve Norman, chair of the overview and scrutiny committee of Lichfield District Council, is asking them to return over concerns Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding of £1.1million was in danger of being lost.
He said:
“The Primary Care Trust received £4.3million for Burntwood’s Hammerwich Hospital when the NHS closed it in 2007. Residents were promised two new health centres from the proceeds in 2010 but only got one – Greenwood Health Centre – and that was 11 years later.
“At the March 2023 Overview and Scrutiny meeting the ICB told members that ‘the new Burntwood North Centre at Cherry Close would be open and operational from 2025’.
“In February 2025 the ICB was awarded £1,152,110 of strategic CIL funding by Lichfield District Council, which must be spent by September 2028 on completion of the health centre.
“The district council is concerned that, based on their record so far and the fact that a planning application has not yet been submitted for decision by Staffordshire County Council, there is a danger that they will not meet the deadline for the £1.1million, putting the project in danger.”
Cllr Norman’s comments come after the district council’s cabinet member for finance, warned that those behind the health centre that needed “to get on with it”.
Cllr Rob Strachan told a meeting in October 2025:
“We would love to know what those that are holding the purse strings of the health centre project intend to do, because we will not hold this Community Infrastructure Levy funding forever.
“We need this project to start moving otherwise we’ve got £1.15million tied up which could be used for the good of the district and spent elsewhere.
“I call on those who are responsible for making those decisions to get on with it.”
