IN A strange twist, doctors from a Cleveland practice are split over an application to turn the former Fairfax Media Ormiston print site into a medical precinct.
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An application - submitted to Redland City Council for a change of use for the site - is supported by Dr Craig McCombe, one of seven Redlands Clinic partners and part-owner of the Ormiston property.
However, five partners have objected to council, saying the Redlands Clinic never had any intention of moving to the site.
In a written objection to the application, the five - Ross LeFeuvre, Roscoe Foreman, Jon Stellmach, Leo Priest and Michael Earl - said most partners considered the Delancey Street site unsuitable.
"The Redland City Council's decision regarding the proposed medical centre at Delancey Street should not be based on the information in the need assessment document," the partners said.
They questioned the data contained in the document.
Co-owner of the Ormiston site Stephen Lambourne said some objecting partners had visited the property and met with Mr Lambourne and others about the possible relocation.
Mr Lambourne said there had been interest from the Redlands Clinic partners in moving to the Ormiston site.
"But if they don't want to move there that's fine," he said.
"There are other practitioners chomping at the bit to get into the facility."
Dr McCombe's letter - written on the same Redlands Clinic Cleveland letterhead as the other partners' letter - said he was writing on behalf of various general practitioners and specialists who worked and leased space in the Weippin Street medical precinct.
"Unfortunately over the last seven or eight years that we have been located at this destination we have found that the crowding and parking difficulties secondary to being collocated with the large and ever expanding public hospital has reached a crisis point," Dr McCombe said.
"We no longer feel that we are able to offer our patients a convenient service when they are often required to park many hundreds of metres away from our clinics.
"It is obviously quite unacceptable for a group of our patients who are unwell, elderly, expecting or otherwise frail.
"Despite promises from numerous parties we do not see any potential possible resolution to this problem in the foreseeable future."
A objection on behalf of Bayside Business Park says the medical centre would impact on the established and intended medical precinct near the Redland Hospital and Mater Private Hospital.
"Coupled with the zoning of this land, which is for low impact industry, Redland City Plan intends specialist medical facilities (of the size, scale and operation proposed) to be located with and clustered around the hospitals as a medical precinct/hub," the submission said.
"The proposal is contrary to and will undermine this strategy."
Mr Lambourne said he would relocate his signage business to a section of the Ormiston building.
