As you may have seen in the press and online, the barn is a council owned building which in recent times has been struggling financially. Because the usage was too low, the council had to close it back in 2016 as it was leaving a huge hole in local budgets, whilst the barn started to become run down as they didn’t have enough money to repair and restore where needed. The council then took the decision to let the property to a commercial business to help reduce the financial burden and future-proof the building.
With that, several local companies put together proposals for how they would use the space and serve the community. We knew that this was the perfect opportunity to give our clinic a new home, with a safe lease, that would enable us to save the business as we’d been looking for a new home for near on two years.
Out of around a dozen companies who put in a bid, we felt incredibly lucky to then be shortlisted along with three other companies. After what felt like a long wait as we considered what we might do to save the business if this didn’t work, we heard that we had been the lucky company that had won and been chosen to progress with their vision for the barn. We were so unbelievably happy that our long-standing local clinic would have a new home, and was safe once again.
As local members of this community, we would now have this amazing space to improve and make better use of, not only for our patients but local residents too. We hope to be able to offer more services, better access, and facilities and a space for education. In the future we wish to broaden our scope and offer more health care services such as podiatrists, dieticians or mental healthcare. We also plan to use our new space to run educational and interesting talks and workshops related to health and wellbeing which will be open to all – patients, locals and professionals.
However, we’re not quite past the finishing line just yet… As part of the leasing to a commercial business, the barn has to go through planning, for change of use from a D2 (Assembly and Leisure) to D1 (non-residential institution). This would be the case for any of the businesses that had entered a bid, but due to local campaigning we’re now at the point where we’re waiting for a council committee to determine whether the change of use will go through. We said we’d keep all our patients in the loops, and so on Wednesday 27th March the planning committee are likely to make their final decision.
We want to thank all those that have supported us so far, we’re so incredibly grateful to know that our patients and friends of GCC are behind us as we try to secure the future of our long-standing clinic. Keep us in your thoughts, cross your fingers, as we wait to hear from the council.
We’ll be in touch with the final result and what that means for Guildford Chiropractic Centre and its patients very soon. In the meantime, feel free to read some more information below, and let us know if you have any questions.
Philip & Annie Practice Principal & Practice Manager (the Co-owners of GCC)
Why Us?… A Local Business Worth Saving!
Local History:
We have been reducing pain, improving lives and promoting wellness here in Guildford for nearly 70 years, serving the local community since 1953. We are one of the oldest Chiropractic Clinics in the UK, now a multidisciplinary clinic providing Chiropractic, Physiotherapy and Clinical Massage Services. In the future we wish to broaden our scope further and offer more health care services such as podiatrists, dieticians or mental healthcare.
We’re in demand:
Nearly 3000 individual patients have regularly visited us in the last two years, and there are many, many more of you who may not see us as frequently but know we are there when you need us. Many of you and your families have been visiting us for generations, which we consider an honour. We are also growing year on year as demand for quality, affordable private healthcare rises and knowledge of the benefits of our services increases. Last year we welcomed a record 525 new patients through our doors for the first time.
Without our services many of our patients would visit the NHS more regularly whether it would be a visit to a GP or emergency service when in pain, which only adds further strain to the service. We cross refer with and complement the NHS, providing what their stretched services and limited budgets can’t. With back pain affecting 40% of adults and being the number one musculo-skeletal cause of time off work, we are an ever more important service.
Protect & Care:
We are a low impact organisation which will protect and care for this beautiful heritage building, ensuring all repairs and restoration happens when needed, and at our own expense. We also have great synergy with the other organisations that occupy the Burchatts Farm site and users of the park, promoting health and wellness being our main purpose.
Vision:
We hope to become a local hub for health and well-being, not only looking after our current patients, but also being able to offer increased services such as podiatrists, nutritionist or mental healthcare. We’ll also be running free local events focused on health, well-being and general interest talks and workshops, which will be open to all. We want to be a useful asset to the community and local residents above and beyond our current services, and so are keen to know your thoughts on the services you would like to see offered. Let us know if you have any ideas or requirements at info@guildfordchiropractic.co.uk.
Going Forward:
We hope you are as excited as we are and will be happy to join us at our new home!
Going forward we will be keeping you updated with developments as necessary. The move itself won’t be for several months and so you don’t need to do anything. We want to make this easy for you, a completely seamless transition. Any appointments already booked in will be at our current venue, 200 London Road and we will be letting everyone know exactly when the move date is and will distribute all the finer details in due course. If not signed up already, please head over to our facebook page to sign up to our newsletter which we will be using to share updates.
We are always here to help:
If you have any questions at all about our move you can always talk to us. You can call us (01483 562830) and ask for Philip or Annie who if unavailable right away will call you back. You can also email us at info@guildfordchiropractic.co.uk. And lastly, you can pop in and talk to our reception team or speak to your practitioner at your next visit.
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