HEALTH bosses have refused to withdraw thousands of leaflets claiming that a council has selected part of a recreation ground for a new medical centre.

The Durham Dales Primary Care Trust (PCT) also rebuffed a request from Wear Valley District Council that it should cancel a series of consultation meetings over a shake-up of GP services.

The council is angry that a leaflet publicising development plans by the Auckland Medical Group states that the authority has reserved a site in Watling Road, Bishop Auckland, next to the Jane Armstrong Park, for its new surgery.

The practice wants to replace three surgeries in Cockton Hill Road, St Helen Auckland and Coundon with the purpose-built facility which, it says, will help provide better health care for patients.

The PCT leaflets say the practice chose the plot as its preferred site because it is well served by public transport, would have good parking facilities and would be accessible to all patients, including those in new housing developments and in some of the most deprived local wards.

But district councillor Barbara Laurie, Wear Valley's chairwoman of planning, said: "That land is earmarked for recreation. It is protected open space and the council is committed to keeping it for recreational purposes.

"The statement that we have reserved a plot of land for them is totally misleading. We never do that. The very idea that we could reserve a site for individuals or groups of people goes against all democracy and this statement has made me very angry.

"Councillors have never considered selling that land."

Andrew Kenworthy, the PCT's chief executive, said: "Wear Valley District Council has a key role in helping the PCT to find a suitable site for the new development and the PCT will take into account fully the council's views on any proposed location.

"The consultation meetings will continue as planned, as they are primarily to seek comments on the proposed service changes at the practice, and then on the most appropriate location for the new development."