THE FIRST sod has been cut as work finally begins on a new doctors’ surgery in Puddletown after a six year wait.

Doctors in the village have been looking to move to new, modern premises since 2004 and there was cause for celebration as construction has finally begun.

To mark the occasion, doctors, surgery staff and contractors Spetisbury Construction Ltd held a special sod-cutting ceremony.

Special guest at the event was 84-year-old Dr Peter Normandale, who was the village doctor in Puddletown for more than 30 years.

The new surgery will be on land between Athelhampton Road and Butts Lane and is due to be completed in February next year.

Carol Taylor, practice manager at the Puddletown Surgery, said: “It will mean that we will be able to have more space to look after our patients in the way we would like to and we will be able to develop our services.

“There will also be a nice big car park and it will enable us to deliver top quality healthcare.

“We have been planning it since 2004. It’s been about getting the right location, the funds and getting the planners all to agree, which is always difficult.”

The project has been supported by the Dorset Primary Care Trust, with the rest of the capital funded by the doctors themselves.

Director of Spetisbury Con-struction Andrew Gould promised to deliver a surgery that Puddletown could be proud of.

He said: “This has been a long awaited facility and we have been working on it for nearly two years. It has taken a long time and they are in desperate need for premises considerably larger than what they are in at the moment.

“The new facility is going to be a modern surgery with all the facilities that medical practices have to provide now.”

Dr Normandale, who served Puddletown as a GP from 1955 to 1987, said he was ‘honoured’ to be invited along to cut the first sod for the new surgery.

He said: “The new surgery can only be good for the village.”

n harry.hogger@dorsetecho.co.uk