An MP has promised to step over a row about the whether a new housing estate being built near Leamington and Warwick should be barred from having a pharmacy.

The government body responsible for deciding where pharmacies should go has ignored the recommendation from Warwickshire Health Authority that there should be one at the new development at Heathcote.

By the end of the year 500 properties on the new estate will be occupied. About a quarter are being built for use as social housing.

There are also 80 mobile homes nearby at Heathcote Park on Harbury Lane.

Local authorities including Whitnash and Warwick Town Councils, Warwick District Council and South Warwickshire Community Health Council, all said that a pharmacy would be needed in the area.

But the Family Health Services Appeals Authority has now twice turned down the request.

Warwick and Leamington MP James Plaskitt has now pledged to raise the issue with the Secretary of Sate for Health Alan Milburn to query the decision.

He said:

”The new development has a fully functioning doctor’s surgery and it makes sense to have a chemist at hand.

”Not having such a facility means that people are likely to use their cars for journeys that could have been made by foot.

“I am raising my concerns about the democratic deficit in the way in which such decisions are made.

“Local authorities have all supported the need for a pharmacy but their views have not been given sufficient weight.

“I am asking the minister about reviewing the means of determining these applications.”