OPPOSITION has been dispensed with and patient power has ensured a local pharmacy can move shop.

More than 350 patients and community figures, including Bury's MPs and councillors, wrote to Bury and Rochdale Health Authority supporting the Bury Pharmacy in Manchester Road's bid to move.

A row had erupted earlier this year when the Manchester Road chemist said it wanted to relocate along with neighbouring Blackford Bridge Medical Centre into purpose-built premises in Croft Lane.

Although health bosses gave the green light to the move, two applications were turned down by the National Family Health Services Appeals Authority after objections from the Moss Pharmacy in Asda.

It is believed the Moss Pharmacy claimed patients would be inconvenienced by the move and that the proposed area was already adequately served by a pharmacy.

But, in the absence of no new objections, permission for the move has at last been granted.

Pharmacy manager Mrs Zahida Khalaf said: "We are absolutely delighted. Around 60 per cent of our patients are elderly people and it is convenient for them to have a pharmacy immediately next door to their surgery."

Mr Phil Emmott, the health authority's director of operations, is also pleased with the outcome.

"The health authority has supported the re-location all the way, and it is clearly what local people and patients of Blackford Bridge want," he said.

"The medical centre and pharmacy, which have traditionally served the community together, would have been split. We appealed to local patients to let the health authority know what they wanted.

"Support for the two organisations to stay together was overwhelming so we are pleased that this outcome will be a relief for them."

The re-sited pharmacy and medical centre are due to open in early January.

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