Surgery expansion plans to be unveiled in spring

31 December 2025

Vikki IrwinSuffolk political reporter

News image — David Lewis, business manager for Beccles Medical Centre, said building the extension may not start until early 2027

Vikki Irwin/BBC David Lewis is standing in front of the Beccles Medical Centre. He is wearing a white shirt and light brown trousers. He has a rainbow lanyard and name badge. He is smiling and wearing glasses. To the right of where Mr Lewis is standing is a sign which says Health Centre in black on a white background. — David Lewis, business manager for Beccles Medical Centre, said building the extension may not start until early 2027

Expansion plans for Beccles Medical Centre will be ready to view in the spring, according to the GP practice.

The £4.2m extension will add more consultation rooms and a training area for the surgery, which has 20,000 patients, once approved.

The money to enable the build was agreed in October by East Suffolk Council from their Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) fund. This is money collected from housing developers for local services.

David Lewis, business manager at Beccles Medical Centre, said: "We will have planning in, in the early part of 2026 and then into 2027. Hopefully we will start to see some things happening."

Vikki Irwin/BBC There is an area of concrete in the foreground with an overgrown area around the concrete. In the background you can see the rear of the Beccles Medical Center. It is a large red brick two storey building with 11 windows on the top storey. — The land at the rear of the health centre will be developed to create the extra consulting and training rooms

As part of the plans for the surgery, which serves the town of Beccles and surrounding villages, a two-storey extension will be added and nine to 10 new consulting rooms created, along with a meeting room and a room for training GPs.

Parking areas, which are already at a premium, will also be redesigned.

Mr Lewis said: "Overall, we hope to create about another 40 spaces"

He added that they would be changing the front entrance to create parking along the side of the building and would also look at the layout of the existing car park to accommodate more spaces.

Vikki Irwin/BBC Dr Morton is wearing blue medical scrubs with a Beccles medical centre written on the left side. He is smiling at the camera and has a beard. He is photographed against a white wall — The Beccles GP practice is also a training centre for new doctors, and Dr Tim Morton said the expansion would mean it would have better facilities for training

Dr Tim Morton, a GP at the centre for 36 years, said the expansion would future-proof the practice.

"We've got huge housing development plans around the area which we foresee will increase the practice population by a quarter," he said.

"We are a major teaching and training practice, and we are currently constrained by capacity of rooms, but with this increasing population, we do need extra rooms to see these patients, and we're thinking ahead and want to provide an excellent service."

Bidwells/Larkfleet Ltd A CGI image from a bird's eye of what the proposed development could look like. It shows a large area where new homes will be built and there are areas marked out and name for the likes of sports pitches, parks, schools and more. — A new development in Beccles and Worlingham will include approximately 1,250 new homes and other facilities to support the community

A new planning application was submitted to East Suffolk Council in December for a Beccles and Worlingham garden neighbourhood.

If agreed, it will eventually deliver more than 1,000 new homes.

Mark Packard, cabinet member for planning and coastal management at East Suffolk Council, said: "In October, we approved £4.2m in CIL funding to expand Beccles Medical Centre and help mitigate the local population increase from the proposed Beccles and Worlingham Garden Neighbourhood development.

"We will also continue to work closely with Beccles Medical Centre and the Integrated Care Board on their plans for expansion."