Despite inclement weather, around 300 Parish residents turned out to the unveiling of the proposed design for the new Mayfield Community and Health Centre on Saturday 27 November. The information event was held in the Memorial Hall, Court Meadow. We are pleased to report that we received a most favourable response from the majority of attendees, and that the ‘drop-in’ morning was generally considered a great success.

Alongside some of the Parish Council members that were on hand to discuss the project with villagers, was Councillor Brian Redman, Wealden District Council (WDC), Dr Richard Baxter, Woodhill Surgery, and two project architects from architects’ practice, Roberts Limbrick Architects. 

The project to build the new combined health and community centre on land owned by the Parish Council is being undertaken in partnership with Wealden District Council. The health centre part of the project is being fully funded by Wealden District Council, which enables the provision of a purpose-built medical facility in the village of Mayfield, three times the size of the existing Woodhill surgery.  The land occupied by the health centre will be rented by WDC, with the support of the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, to our local GP practice, Woodhill Surgery. Whereas the community centre part of the project is being funded by Mayfield and Five Ashes Parish Council to provide a new, multi-purpose, social hub for the entire Parish.

The development of the design was illustrated on 10 display boards, with artist’s impressions of how the completed building might look. This included how the design brief was fulfilled whilst overcoming the site’s challenges and budget limitations. The proposed building is positioned on the  existing developed two acres at the top of Court Meadow. The design allows for the sloping of the site by creating a lower ground floor at the rear to house the health centre. In addition a ‘fly-through’ video on a continuous loop, visualised the completed building three dimensionally, both eternally and internally. 

Also on display were three options for the external finishes to the building. Forms were available for those who wished to provide feed-back about the project and the three options for external materials. These included locally sourced Sussex and Wealden sandstone, local red/orange brick and silvered timbered weatherboarding.

The Mayfield Community and Health Centre display boards and video have since been posted on the Mayfield and Five Ashes Parish website and Facebook. Also, the display can now be viewed in ‘Celebrating the Arts’ window along with the video playing on a television screen. Our thanks go to Peter Hetreed for facilitating this display, which has allowed the plans for the new community and health centre to be shared in a prominent Mayfield high street position with a greater number of people in the Parish.

 For further information visit the village website and Facebook. Relevant information will continue to be published on the MCC section of the Parish Council website www.mayfieldfiveashes.org.uk