Plans for a new doctors’ surgery in a Lake District village without a permanent GP have been abandoned after planners raised concerns that patients could be hit by cricket balls.
Residents of Coniston even produced a social media video showcasing the village’s spectacular scenery in an effort to attract a replacement doctor after the previous GP retired last year.
The campaign failed to attract a single applicant, leaving the village’s 845 residents reliant on temporary medical cover for three days a week in a basement reached by a flight of stairs.
Hoping to make the position more appealing, local businessman Phil Johnston offered to build a new surgery on land he owns in the village.
But planning officers at the Lake District National Park Authority have recommended rejecting the scheme over health and safety fears linked to Coniston Cricket Club, whose players could send balls over the boundary and into the proposed site.
Mr Johnston, 73, had already spent £10,000 on the application, including £2,500 for a specialist assessment of the risk posed by cricket balls. He has now withdrawn the proposal, saying he is deeply frustrated.
“I have had enough. I was only doing it for the village as an act of kindness. There was nothing in it for me,” Mr Johnston said.
Coniston cricket ground in the Lake District, where concerns about powerful shots clearing the boundary have derailed plans for a new surgery on neighbouring land
Businessman Phil Johnston, pictured beside an historic water wheel he restored, proposed the 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,” he added.
“If they don’t want a new doctors’ surgery and two new houses, that’s up to them.”
After 170 years with its own family doctor, Coniston came close to losing its medical service altogether last year. A video campaign highlighting the village’s dramatic setting, seven pubs and a brewery failed to bring a full-time GP to the area.
Almost one in three residents is aged over 65. Without local provision, they would have faced an hour-long round trip by car to the nearest full-time surgery in Ulverston, while travelling by bus would have taken twice as long.
As an interim measure, another Lake District practice opened a branch surgery in the basement of a village house, offering appointments three days a week.
Mr Johnston, who owns a portfolio of holiday cottages locally, submitted plans for a privately funded surgery. The proposal received backing from the parish council and the patients’ group.
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His outline application included the surgery and two apartments designated for local occupancy.
Objections came from a resident who argued that an existing building should be converted, conservation campaigners Friends of the Lake District, who feared the development would damage views, and Coniston Cricket Club.
In 2025, Coniston residents launched a social media campaign in an unsuccessful bid to attract a new full-time GP to the village
Sport England, responding on behalf of the cricket club, told planners that a protective fence as high as 46ft (14m) would be needed at the surgery site to shield people from balls hit for six.
Its planning consultant warned that because the “issue of ball strike” had not been “fully resolved”, approving the application could still have a “prejudicial impact on the sporting use of adjacent cricket club”.
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.
