Mid Devon District Council has provided a loan of £240,000 to give a health hub that opened two years ago in a town in Devon a new pharmacy.

The £8 million Redlands Primary Care in Crediton, which was built in 2021 thanks in part to a loan of more than £2 million from the council, will soon have a pharmacy after it agreed to another loan which will be paid back over 13 years.

According to Devon Live, the Liberal Democrat councillor James Buczkowski, the council’s cabinet member for finance, told a cabinet meeting the money had been provided because “more and more NHS services are being pushed to pharmacies to be provided for the community” and pharmacy should be seen “more as a community service than a profit-making entity."

"I think this is a really good facility for the community," he said.

However, another Liberal Democrat councillor, Frank Letch, said it was important to consider the needs of other pharmacies in the area, "particularly the small independent,” rather than give the local primary care hub a new pharmacy.

“Boots will survive but I would really like to see the Crediton Pharmacy protected on the High Street, and I just wonder whether we are doing them a favour or not,” he said. The loan was unanimously approved by Mid Devon's cabinet.