A BATTLE to redevelop a derelict site into a health-led community hub has finally been won following months of negotiations with health bosses.

After Slough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS England (NHSE) failed to back proposals for a new community health facility on the Merrymakers pub site in Meadow Road, Langley, in February, a new agreement has been finally been secured following a series of discussions.

The new facility looks to house Orchard Surgery – currently located in Willow Parade – community services, a dentist, a library service and community policing facilities, as well as providing space for groups and activities already operating from the Merrymakers Hall on the site to continue to do so.

During a Slough Borough Council cabinet meeting on Monday, Stephen Gibson, the council’s head of asset management, said: “The problem at that time [February] was that we couldn’t justify bringing in a new practice.”

However, he explained that relocating an already existing practice was seen as achievable by the CCG and NHSE.

Councillor James Swindlehurst, deputy leader of the council, praised the amount of work done by Mr Gibson to achieve the outcome, describing plans to hopefully incorporate Langley Library as something that will ‘liberate’ the library service.

Daphne Wright is a founder of the New Langley Community Hub – one of the groups operating out of the Merrymakers Hall – who was concerned the facility would be cast aside by the creation of the new hub.

She said: “We’ve got to move out and we’re moving to a smaller premises just temporarily.

“We’re happier now, now that we know we’re getting a hub.”

However she says the suggestion of a chemist would be a waste of space in the hub as she says they already have a ‘perfectly good’ chemist opposite.

She believes an agency to help young, single mums who need guidance, or a nursery, would be a better way to utilise the space.

The group is set to move into its temporary premises at 27 Harrow Road, Langley, two weeks after Christmas.

The proposed hub will be jointly owned and managed by Raw Investments Limited (RIL) and the council.

RIL would have ownership of the health-led area, with the remainder owned by the council and used to provide other services, including the potential relocation of the library.