CONSTRUCTION firm Koru Property Services has started work on a £1.75m contract to build a medical centre in North Tyneside. Developer MedicX Property has been working closely with Gateshead-based Koru for the past two years on the plans to build Monkseaton Medical Centre.

It is investing £2.8m into the project to create the new home for the practise on Cauldwell Avenue, which will create around 35 jobs at its peak.

As well as being much bigger than the existing surgery, the new two-storey medical centre will have a pharmacy, a larger waiting room, larger car park, an ambulance bay, and more treatment rooms.

Ken Jones, site manager for Koru Property Services, said: “We have been tasked with providing a quality and modern replacement for the existing building, which will cater for Monkseaton Medical Centre’s increasing patient numbers.

“With this being a contract being carried out for MedicX Property, and at the request of North Tyneside PCT, all aspects of the building must meet BREEAM standards.”

The standards are a set of environmental guidelines that contractors must meet when completing a commission for the Department of Health.

Koru’s BREEAM qualified team of in-house architects have therefore identified a number of key elements to ensure that Monkseaton Medical Centre is sustainable in its design and construction, and once complete, its operation.