AS plans for a new medical centre in Sunningdale head towards committee both opposition and support is mounting.

Eight years ago proposals for a community health centre to consolidate the ageing Magnolia House and King's Corner were first proposed.

Backed by the BEN, the Motor and Allied Trade Benevolent Fund, the application was refused in July 2014 - primarily because it encroached on Green Belt land, and sat on the ringfenced gap between Sunninghill and Sunningdale.

A new application has now been submitted which moves the planned surgery further back on the site and increases parking facilities to accommodate the 22,703 patients predicted to use the services annually by 2024.

If the merger was completed, 20 doctors and 15 nurses would operate from 34 consulting rooms on the Rise Road site.

Despite the redrawing, opposition to the plans has been outspoken and strident.

In a letter sent on May 19, Sunninghill and Ascot Parish Council wrote: "The Lynwood development has had a huge negative impact upon the openness of the green belt on the adjacent site, and represents a major intensification in the use of this part of the green belt.

"The gap is therefore the only scrap of green belt left and must be retained."

Numerous residents also registered their concerns, including Darryl and Caley Kohler, who pointed to the recently constructed BEN care home and the "busy vehicle entrances on the crest of Rise Road" built to service it. They feared the medical centre would create "unacceptable traffic interaction and congestion."

There are those backing the proposals however, not least Duncan Rayner.

Mr Rayner said: "The first point to make is that BEN are gifting this site to the community and offering to build the centre at their expense. This is a chance we will never be offered again.

"I have know this site for the last 70 years and it has always been a mass of brambles and scrubby tress. Green Belt policy is not cast in tablets of stone.

"If special circumstances can be established then permission can be granted for development."

The plans are due to go before committee at the end of June. 

To view the plans and have your say, go to tinyurl.com/l6nykpv