COMMUNITY leaders say they are optimistic Buckley will finally get a new medical centre after a planning application was re-submitted to Flintshire Council.

Plans to build a multi-million pound medical centre in the town have been hit by a series of setbacks and the scheme was plunged into doubt when the Marches Medical Centre pulled out of the development last year.

An outline planning application has now been re-submitted to the county council and will be discussed by members on Wednesday next week.

Buckley councillor Dennis Hutchinson said: “We have been pushing for the medical centre for several years now, but in earnest over the last two to three years. I’m feeling very optimistic now that it will go ahead.”

The development is earmarked for land at the former Belmont Special School on Mill Lane.

Flintshire Local Health Board is currently devising a scaled-down version of the original application which had to be amended after the Marches Medical Centre pulled out.

It was hoped that a town centre location could be found for the facility, but the Health Board has said the Belmont site is the only possible location.

Concerns have been raised by members of the public over the lack of parking and the increased congestion the development will bring to the already overstretched highway infrastructure.

Cllr Carol Ellis has requested that the planning committee undertake a site visit before any decisions are made.

If the plans are given the green light and a funding bid to the Welsh Assembly is approved work is expected to commence in late 2012.