ERIN PEARSON
TORQUAY will have a new seven-day-a-week medical centre after council’s planning committee approved plans last week.
The centre will include doctors’ rooms, pathology and allied health services including physiotherapy, dentistry, speech therapy and a chiropractor.
Surf Coast Shire’s planning committee also approved plans for a 44-seat cafe abutting the medical centre.
The development, on Geelong Rd, includes purpose-built, single-storey buildings for up to eight practitioners to operate between 8am to 8pm.
The food and drink premises would be able to trade during the same hours.
The plan attracted three objections.
Surf Coast Shire’s planning officer set aside the plan due to concerns the building would appear “suburban rather than coastal” but the planning committee gave the project a green light.
Planning documents said two existing houses on the the 2720-square-metre site between Cowrie Rd and Central Ave would be demolished for the development.
Surf Coast Medical Centre trialed six-minute appointments last year to cope with a shortage of doctors.
Applicant Ahmed Elzahbi had not responded to the Independent’s calls for comment before the paper went to press.
Grants help DEVELOP artists
Surf Coast artists and creatives can pursue their project ambitions and careers as the DEVELOP program returns for another year.
Applications for...
