A GREEN Party campaigner has called for guarantees over the long-term future of a new health centre in Ridgehill, as work continues to transform a former shop unit into a healthcare facility.
Phil Wilson-Marks, the party’s campaigner for Stalybridge North, says the community has played a key role in getting the project off the ground – but believes responsibility for its future funding should now fall on Tameside Council and the NHS.
The Ridgehill Community Medical Centre project has received £53,390 from Tameside Council’s Pride in Place Impact Fund.
The money will be used to help transform the former shop units on Ambleside into a health centre, with the potential for the facility to expand into a wider community medical centre.
However, the project had originally sought £180,000 from the council’s fund.
Wilson-Marks – who stood for election in the Stalybridge North ward earlier this year but was unsuccessful – says the capital funding secured for the building does not necessarily provide the ongoing funding required to operate healthcare services from the site.
He is calling on Tameside Council and the Stalybridge, Dukinfield and Mossley Primary Care Network (PCN) to agree a long-term plan covering services, staffing and revenue funding.
He said the progress made so far was down to the efforts of local residents and community organisations.
“The local community deserves enormous credit for getting this project to this stage. Residents and community organisations have worked hard to make the case for better access to healthcare in Ridgehill and have kept pushing for something positive to happen. That community effort has helped create this opportunity, and it is important that we recognise and celebrate what has been achieved.
“But the responsibility for what happens next cannot rest on the shoulders of local volunteers and community groups. The long-term funding and sustainability of the health centre must now be the responsibility of Tameside Council and the local Primary Care Network.”
‘You can fund a building but you also have to fund the service inside it’
Tameside Council’s Neighbourhood Health Plan for 2026/27 sets out an ambition for a more community-focused and neighbourhood-based approach to health and care.
Council documents relating to the Ridgehill project have also identified the need to embed the local PCN and NHS offer and bring the healthcare hub into the community.
Wilson-Marks said he wanted those ambitions to translate into a long-term commitment for Ridgehill.
“This is fantastic news for Ridgehill, but we need to be honest about what this funding does and doesn’t provide,” he explained.
“You can fund a building, but you also have to fund the service inside it. Residents have waited long enough for reliable access to healthcare closer to home. They cannot be expected to celebrate a new health centre today only to find that, a few years down the line, there is no secure funding to keep it operating.
“Tameside Council has helped get this project moving. Now it needs to work with the NHS and the local Primary Care Network to guarantee its long-term future.
“I want to see a clear commitment that Ridgehill will have a properly funded, permanent NHS service, not another short-term project dependent on one-off grants.”
Wilson-Marks added: “The council has already said it wants healthcare brought into the heart of the Ridgehill community. Now we need to see the money and political commitment to make that happen.
“The question isn’t whether Ridgehill deserves a health centre. The community has already made its need for local healthcare very clear.
“The community has done its part. Now it is time for the Council and the Primary Care Network to do theirs.”
The health centre is expected to open shortly, with the project potentially providing a foundation for a larger community health hub in future.