PENKETH Parish Council has voted against plans to centralise health centres and called a public meeting for next Wednesday to see if the public will support it.

Warrington Primary Care Trust (PCT) is currently consulting on the town wide scheme but it has faced fierce opposition from doctors and patients.

Clr George Warburton, also a Labour borough councillor, proposed the motion again the plan, which was unanimously supported by the parish council.

He said the PCT's representatives had got a roasting' at a public meeting at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and a meeting in Penketh because none had been called nearby.

Clr Warburton told the parish council on Monday that the PCT proposed five health centres for the town and the nearest to Penketh was likely to be in Chapelford.

He said: "It would mean that lots of people would need to travel. If it did go through it would mean all the other surgeries would be closed.

"The PCT have to take this plan back and rewrite it in consultation with the people who know - the doctors and the patients.

"The doctors have not been consulted at all.

"I have been told some of the doctors have been told if you don't sign up to it we will get doctors from somewhere else."

The PCT has said each centre will be state of the art' and will serve 40,000 people. Two of the centres are new builds proposed for Orford Park and Garven Place.

The meeting heard the PCT's consultation period ends on May 7. Residents were urged to write individual letters of objection, rather than just signing the two petitions in the doctor's surgery.

Doctors from Penketh surgery will be invited to the meeting.

The meeting will take place next Wednesday, April 25, at 8pm in the sports hall of the community centre on Honiton Way.