CONTROVERSIAL plans to relocate GP surgeries in Malvern will be under the spotlight at a meeting next week.

South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust planned to move the Malvern Health Centre and Court Road surgery to a site off Townsend Way.

But families, worried about the lack of transport links to the site, objected to the proposal during the public consultation process.

They also feared the plan would leave the Barnards Green area of Malvern without a surgery.

At a meeting in March, the trust agreed to explore whether there were any other areas that would be suitable as a base, and it has now earmarked two other sites in Malvern as possible alternatives.

The depot site, in Pickersleigh Road, is owned by the district council and is just over one mile from Malvern Health Centre and half-a-mile from Court Road surgery.

The BMX site, in North End Lane, is one mile from the health centre and just over one mile from the surgery.

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust Board at County Hall, Worcester, on Tuesday

Gillian Goodlad, the trust's director of modernisation, recommends in a report to the board that the alternative sites are explored.

"We would not be required to conduct a further public consultation if we were to proceed with either of the new sites as they are no further or closer than the existing surgeries," she said.