Pharmacy approval celebrated in Ashtead

A DECISION to allow a pharmacy to open at an Ashtead site has been called "a brilliant victory for common sense and people power".

Community groups, councillors and the village's MP Chris Grayling all supported Abdool Kureemans plans to open a pharmacy in The Street but his battle to do so has lasted more than a year.

Older people had led the calls for a chemist shop to open in the villages main shopping street ever since Lloyds Pharmacy closed in February last year.

Since then, they have had to travel to Lower Ashtead for medicines, a situation that led Mr Kureeman to seek permission to open a replacement at the Lloyds site.

But to the astonishment of many villagers, the application by Mr Kureeman, who already runs the popular Buckley Pharmacy in Lower Ashtead, was rejected by health bosses amid opposition from Lloyds.

Undeterred, he turned his attention to the former Barclays Bank site, also in The Street, and after further opposition from Lloyds and an agonising wait, he learned this week that the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had approved his application for a pharmacy there.

I am elated, he said. Ive been waiting for more than a year.

I'm really pleased for all the residents of Ashtead, who have supported me throughout.

All the hard work of everyone involved has paid off. Its about the elderly people of Ashtead, not me.

I must thank all the residents, SAVE (Save Ashtead Village Environment), Chris Grayling, local councillors, the Ashtead Residents Association, Ashtead Good Neighbours and the U3A.

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Pharmacy approval celebrated in Ashtead