PROPOSALS for a new medical centre that have divided public opinion in a village are expected to take a big step forward next week.

Trinity Medical Properties has submitted plans for the facility to be built opposite the cricket pitch at Aldbrough St John, near Richmond.

If councillors approve the project, villagers would be given a doctors' surgery, treatment rooms, physiotherapy and rehabilitation facilities and a meeting room all on the same site.

Residents have written to Richmondshire District Council to voice both support and objections to the scheme.

Protestors claimed the development would be out of character, becoming the largest building on the skyline. They also fear a major increase in traffic which existing roads would not be able to accommodate.

However, dozens of people have also signed a petition and written letters backing the proposed centre, which would serve about 3,000 people in Aldbrough St John and other surrounding communities north of Richmond.

In a statement explaining the project, Trinity Medical Properties said: "The need to develop new premises arises because the present accommodation is inadequate and unsuitable for the delivery of modern primary care.

"The existing surgery is a former residential property and has no land for expansion, no dedicated car parking, no unassisted disabled access to the ground floor and none at all to the upper floor.

"The site does not allow any scope for the expansion of the premises and subsequent requirements of the NHS."

Council officials are giving their backing to the project and have urged councillors to approve it when they meet in Richmond on Tuesday.

Planning and development control manager, Patrick Earle, said a decision could be deferred for highways issues to be discussed, but he was recommending support in principle.

"I am satisfied that there is no significantly better location for the surgery than Aldbrough St John and that there are no suitable alternative sites available without developing outside the confines of the village," he said