WE'RE having some technical problems with a vote to gauge residents’ feelings about plans for a new medical centre in Knutsford. Our colleagues are working to fix the issue today. Please return to this page at a later time to add your vote.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

A VOTE has been launched on this website to gauge residents’ feelings about plans for a new medical centre in Knutsford.

The Guardian’s inbox and postbag have been inundated recently with letters about the proposed facility in Shaw Heath.

So now, since more details have recently been revealed, we want to know what readers think about the issue.

On Monday the ballot was launched HERE.

It can also be accessed by visiting the homepage and clicking on ‘Knutsford Medical Centre’ in the light grey strip under the Guardian masthead.

Readers can vote for the project to go ahead, be altered or be scrapped altogether.

The options are: · I support the plans for the medical centre in Shaw Heath.

· I support the plans for the medical centre, but at another location in Knutsford.

· They should scrap the plans for the medical centre and keep the GPs' surgeries where they are.

This week residents also sent their comments to knutsford@guardiangrp.co.uk Cycle Knutsford said its members were divided about the best location for the facility.

But the group, which represents more than 120 residents, said access to the proposed site would be important.

“Although people who are ill understandably travel by car, there are many occasions when journeys can be conducted by sustainable transport which additionally can promote good health,” said vice chairman John Richardson.

“Specifically adequate dual-use pathways and covered cycle parks are essential.”

Mabel Taylor, a member of the medical centre project’s community panel, is concerned about the cost of the facility.

“If the increased costs we know about today are any indication, then future healthcare could be both uncertain and costly,” she said.

Meanwhile, Jim Harwood criticised the preferred location.

“I cannot understand how Shaw Heath was ever put on the list. It is almost outside the town,” he said.

Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust plans to move Knutsford’s three GPs’ surgeries - Toft Road, Manchester Road and Annandale - under one roof at the new medical centre in Shaw Heath.

It would also close the Annandale branch in Mobberley, shut the Community Hospital and create more beds at the new location near the junction with Longridge and Mobberley Road.

Officials say more services such as scans and clinics would then be available and fewer patients would have to travel miles to Macclesfield and other hospitals.

But some residents have raised concerns about the location and cost, as well as the future of Knutsford’s waste tip on the council-owned site.

The initial results of a survey by Tatton MP George Osborne have shown most respondents were ‘anxious’ about the plans.

A final public meeting will take place on Wednesday October 14 from 6.30pm at the Victory Hall in Mobberley.

· THE Knutsford Guardian wants hundreds of residents to vote on the medical centre plans. Visit knutsfordguardian.co.uk/knutsford_medical to take part

CLICK HERE TO VOTE.