Village losespharmacyafter 80 years

Rowlands Pharmacy will open on Monday at its new address in Flansham Park Health Centre in Felpham.

The move from the premises in Bankside in Middleton follows the success of the pharmacy's owner, Rowlands Pharmacy, in winning an appeal about the relocation.

The new location of the pharmacy is about a mile's round trip away from the site where the business has been based since at least 1929.

Middleton Parish Council clerk David Allsopp said the loss of the pharmacy would have an impact. 'It removes another facility from the village. Each time a facility is taken away, it is detrimental to local people,' he said.

'If people can't go to a pharmacy in Middleton, they are just as likely to drive through the village and use one in somewhere like Bognor and the village will lose trade as a result.

'The parish council would much have preferred the pharmacy to stay in the village but it's a commercial decision taken by a company.'

The pharmacy premises will remain as a drugstore.