POLITICIANS in Farington have vowed to continue the fight for their own pharmacy after plans for the area's first chemist were blocked.

The local health authority decided to refuse the new chemist, which would have opened in Stanifield Lane, Farington, after receiving objections from local GPs and two other pharmacists in Leyland.

Originally the health authority had backed the plans, but public consultation attracted opposition from the pharmacists, forcing the authority to think again.

In the past, the two pharmacies who objected to the new plan have submitted their own requests to open up in the village, prompting claims by local councillors that their opposition is purely down to self-interest.

Now councillors from all political parties are vowing to fight for the pharmacy they say Farington so desperately needs. Coun Howard Gore, environmental health spokesman for South Ribble Borough Council, said: "I am aghast by this decision and I have pledged to add my support to this campaign and fight with the people of Farington to have this decision reversed."

Thousands of people have signed petitions backing the project.

Coun Mark Alcock, a Farington councillor, added: "This chemist would have provided a vital service for us as a community, and a service which is desperately needed.

"The two pharmacists who have blocked this plan have both tried to open here before, and been refused. That proves to me that they felt there was a need for a chemists here, but that isn't what they say in their letters.

"That smacks of self-interest coming before the needs of a community."

South Ribble MP David Borrow has also taken the case up on behalf of the pharmacist, Patricia Hill, in the hope there may be a way around the situation.

He said: "Residents are disappointed that their desire to have their own pharmacy has not come to fruition."

A petition is also being planned.

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