CONTAINER 12/2/23...

Two years ago, the Lambert Health Centre (not to be confused with the adjacent hospital, which has now been taken over by Herriot Hospice Homecare) obtained temporary planning consent to place a shipping container on a concealed part of their site, to house patient records which were still in old fashioned paper files.

It was temporary permission, because the National Health Service intended to digitize the files within the two-year timespan.

But, when did you or I ever see an NHS deadline met, so the practice has had to go back to Hambelton District Council for an extension to the life of the container.

This has led to an objection to the siting of the box from their neighbour, the Thirsk and Sowerby Institute, on the grounds that it obscures the daylight to their kitchen window, (The only time when this occurs is when the door to the container is opened when records are accessed) and a condemnation of the renewal from the Sowerby Parish Council, on the grounds that such an object has no place in a conservation area! (The council minutes do not reveal whether the councillors actually looked at the site) The planning procedures grind on – an official from the council made an initial inspection, after he had to have the location pointed out to him, and the planning committee in hi-viz jackets convened en masse to inspect it..........

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