Councillor welcomes new centre for residents

12.00.00am GMT Mon 10th Mar 2008

Plans to build a new service centre in Gipton and Harehills, bringing Leeds City Council and NHS services under one roof, have been welcomed by local councillor Alan Taylor (Lib Dem, Gipton and Harehills).

The new one stop centre will help improve access to services, ensure services are more tailored to the needs of the user, tackle exclusion, increase efficiency and deliver continuous improvement.

The centre will host a wide range of services, that can be used by the whole community. A community library will be based in the centre, providing books, magazines, newspapers and all kinds of information. Leeds City Council Environmental Health officers will be on hand to help local residents with any kind of enquiry. A branch of the Leeds Credit Union will be opened there, allowing residents to make use of the range of services offered.

As well as council services, NHS services, provided by the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) will also be available at the centre. These will include a Community Drug Team, working within the local community, tackling drug dependency within the local area. There will also be a Mental Health Team, aimed at treating mental health issues and liaising with partner organisations to help combat this growing problem.

It will be funded through a partnership with the primary care trust, city council and private business. The private sector contractor will be responsible for all maintenance costs and works that will be needed at the facility for the life of the contract.

The total cost of the scheme is approximately £49m and if everything progresses as scheduled the new building should be up and running by March 2010.

Councillor Alan Taylor said:

"I really hope the plans to build a new joint service centre in Harehills get the go-ahead from the council's Executive Board. A new facility like this will make it much easier for local residents to receive services from both the council and NHS.

Investment of this scale really shows the commitment this administration has for the residents of Harehills, something that was clearly not the case a few years ago. Hopefully we can really press on with this now and look forward to an excellent facility in the heart of the community."