Plans to build a new doctors’ surgery in a Lake District village with no full-time GP have been scrapped over fears that patients could be struck by flying cricket balls.
Residents of Coniston produced a social media video featuring the area’s stunning natural beauty in a bid to attract a village doctor after theirs retired last year.
But no one applied, with the 845 residents instead having to make do with temporary three-days-a-week cover in a basement down a flight of steps.
In the hope of making the post more attractive, community-minded local businessman Phil Johnston applied to build a new surgery on land he owns in the village.
However planners at the Lake District National Park Authority have recommended the proposal is dropped due to health and safety concerns over the risk of patients being bombarded by balls hit for six by players at neighbouring Coniston Cricket Club.
Having already spent £10,000 on the application – plus £2,500 for a risk assessment of the cricket ball threat – the 73-year-old is now withdrawing it in despair.
Mr Johnston said: ‘I have had enough. I was only doing it for the village as an act of kindness. There was nothing in it for me.
Coniston cricket ground in the Lake District, where fears over players hitting huge sixes have put paid to plans for a much-needed new village surgery on neighbouring land
Businessman Phil Johnston, pictured with an historic water wheel he has restored, planned to build a new surgery as ‘an act of kindness’, but says he has now ‘had enough’
‘I am not throwing any more money at it. I don’t want the aggro at my age.
‘If they don’t want a new doctors’ surgery and two new houses, that’s up to them.’
After 170 years with a dedicated family doctor, Coniston last year faced losing its health practice entirely after the video campaign highlighting its stunning location – and seven pubs plus a brewery – failed to attract a single GP to the area.
Residents – nearly one in three of whom are over 65 – would have faced an hour round-trip by car to the nearest full-time surgery in Ulverston, with a bus journey taking double that.
As a stopgap, another Lake District practice opened a branch surgery in the basement of a house in the village operating three days a week.
The plan for a dedicated privately-funded new surgery put forward by Mr Johnston, who has a portfolio of holiday cottages in the area, was backed by the local parish council and patients’ group.
He submitted a bid for outline planning consent for the building, which would also incorporate two apartments reserved for local occupancy.
The only objections were from a resident who said an existing building should be converted instead, campaign group Friends of the Lake District, which expressed concern about views being spoilt, and the village cricket club.
In 2025 residents of Coniston took part in a social media campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to attract a new full-time GP to the village
Commenting on its behalf, Sport England informed planners that a massive fence up to 46ft (14m) high would have to be built on the surgery site to protect it from balls being struck for six.
As the ‘issue of ball strike’ had not been ‘fully resolved’, granting consent ‘could therefore still have a prejudicial impact on the sporting use of adjacent cricket club’, its planning consultant reported.
In her report to the Lake District National Park Authority, planner Emma Kearsey highlighted the club’s concern that ‘a well-hit cricket ball travelling beyond the boundaries of the ground’ risked ‘serious injury to people accessing the surgery and flats above’, as well as potentially damaging the building and vehicles.
‘In their view the normal use of the cricket ground would have to be changed to prevent these risks,’ she added.
While the site was otherwise suitable for a surgery or homes, she recommended refusal of consent due to the risk of creating ‘unreasonable restrictions’ on local cricketers.
A committee was due to vote on the application next month, but Mr Johnston has now withdrawn it.
‘The sad thing is that this was never about making money,’ he said today.
‘I saw it as an altruistic venture.
‘I have nothing whatsoever against the village cricket club, in fact I’m one of the team’s sponsors.
‘It just makes no sense. I’ve owned this land for 15 years and no-one’s ever found a cricket ball that had been hit onto it.’
South Cumbria Integrated Care Board has said GP services will continue from their current location in the basement of Wraysdale House until an alternative can be developed.
