A retirement home provider has applied for planning permission to redevelop the site of a former police station into a 29-home retirement living community.

The neighbourhood policing team in Woodstock moved across Hensington Road to the town's fire station in 2019.

Thames Valley Police did not renew the lease on the 1970s station at a time when many bases across the county faced an uncertain future.

Developer McCarthy Stone proposes to redevelop the site with 29 one- and two-bedroom apartments with communal facilities including a reception area with site manager, residents’ lounge, internal refuse and mobility scooter store and guest suite, along with landscaped gardens and parking.

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Planning documents lodged with West Oxfordshire District Council said "the site has become a bit of an eyesore from the main public car park in the centre of the town" and is "therefore highly visible to tourists and visitors to Woodstock".

The papers add: "A retirement community in this location would be a great asset to the town and local community, allowing ageing residents the opportunity to stay within the heart of the community whilst freeing-up housing stock elsewhere."

Some in the town had hoped the site could be used for a larger GP surgery which is urgently needed.

In July the GPs at Woodstock Surgery sent a desperate letter to all patients, local town and district councils, and the Bucks, Oxon and West Berkshire Integrated Care Board - the NHS body responsible for commissioning services - saying the number of patients they had was already "unsustainable".

With 500 to 1,000 new homes in the planning process it may be forced to close its patient list, leaving many residents without local healthcare services, the medics said.

In September the roof of the old surgery collapsed following a week of record heavy rainfall.

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Members of Bicester and Woodstock Labour party gathered outside the old police station during a public consultation by McCarthy Stone in September, calling for it instead to be prioritised as as an available site for a new health centre.

Woodstock Town Council has called a town meeting to inform residents and surrounding villages about the current position regarding a new surgery.

It aims "to alleviate that anxiety, and to provide all those concerned with clear, concrete information about where matters currently stand".

It will be chaired by the mayor, Ann Grant, and attended by Woodstock MP Calum Miller and stakeholders who will speak on the current position followed by questions from the floor.

The meeting is on Thursday, November 21 at 7pm at St Mary Magdalene Church, Park Street, Woodstock.