A LARGE crowd of protestors gathered outside a surgery in St Martins this weekend to call for it be reopened.

Protestors, including the MP for North Shropshire, Helen Morgan, gathered outside St Martins Surgery, The Old School House on Saturday, April 23.

The surgery is a branch of Chirk Surgery and has been closed temporarily since March 2020, and has yet to reopen. A decision over its future will be made by Chirk Surgery on Tuesday.

One of the protestors, who did not wish to be identified, said residents would be required to go to Chirk, Oswestry or Ellesmere should it close for good.

She said: "There is no bus service straight to Chirk.

"It can be a two hour thing to get to Chirk. I do not drive, it is very difficult."

The protestor added the service was being closed at a time the village was growing.

She said: "The village is growing, it is growing beyond proportion.

"Where are people going to go to the doctor's surgery."

Another protestor said it was not broken and said changes to the bus service would impact patients

He explained: "It could be resolved if the Chirk Surgery were so minded as to keep it open, it was not broken.

"You would have to ask yourself, why is the real reason for closing it.

"Arriva has changed the service. If you do not have your own transport, it makes it impossible because there is not a direct service.

"If I lived in the village I would go a mile down the road to get off the bus, wait for 40 minutes to get the bus which goes from Oswestry to Wrexham via Chirk.

"Then try and and manipulate an appointment time within the bus service.

"If you are out of sync, you might then wait an hour in Chirk to get the bus which goes to Oswestry and 40 minutes for the bus to get to the other end of the village."

Ms Morgan said many residents would have problems being able to access appointments.

She added: "It is obviously a really important issue for St Martins to keep access to a doctors surgery.

"The way the appointment system works is that often they are asked to come in at short notice to see the doctor.

"So if they haven't got access to a car and the bus is not running then they cannot get to those physical appointments.

"It is really important they are able to access physical surgery here."