NHS Ayrshire & Arran have said they would welcome contact from the Cumbrae Community Development Company over a new pharmacy project.

The ‘News’ asked the health board to outline the guidelines for the provision for a new pharmacy in Millport.

It follows a ‘robust process’ for applications for proposed new pharmacies set out in the National Health Service regulations 2009, recently amended in 2014.

The move for a new pharmacy was revealed in a flyer which has been sent around the island by the applicants, Cumbrae Community Development Company. It asks islanders to vote on whether there should be a new pharmancy or not.

However, the owner of the privately owned Millport Pharmacy, James Semple, has attacked the plans, and believes there is ‘almost zero chance’ of the development getting the go-ahead.

The NHS process stipulates that the applicant contacts the board in the first instance to discuss the application to agree an approach for the consultation process, and agree a further date to meet following the 90-day joint consultation period.

After discussing the outcome of the consultation, the applicant then has a period of 90 days to decide whether to submit an application.

Once received, the board processes the application in line with the requirements and timescales as set out in the regulations.

This includes carrying out an assessment of whether the application involves a ‘controlled locality’ – for example, one which is either remote or rural and served by a dispensing doctor and undertaking the requirement to give notice of the application to various parties inviting written representations within 30 days.

The application is then considered by the Board’s Pharmacy Practices Committee.

A spokeswoman for the NHS said: “The committee can only grant an application where it is satisfied that the provision of pharmaceutical services at the premises named in the application is necessary or desirable in order to secure adequate provision of pharmaceutical services in the neighbourhood.

“Also, if the boundaries of the neighbourhood within which the applicant intends to provide pharmaceutical services falls within any part of a controlled locality, then the committee must be satisfied that the granting of such an application, in its opinion, would not prejudice the provision of NHS funded services in the controlled locality.

“We welcome contact from Cumbrae Community Development Company to arrange the initial meeting which is required as part of this process.” A Cumbrae Community Development Company insider has told the ‘News’ that there is no reason why an application for a pharmacy on the island cannot get the go-ahead, and used Largs and other towns on the mainland as an example where there are several pharmacies, and asked why should Millport be any different.

But a director of the development company has quit over the moves to try and bring a new pharmacy to the island, the ‘News’ understands.

During a recent North Coast council committee meeting, Labour councillor Alex Gallagher voiced his disappointment that the islands’ development company were not willing to take forward a community fuel supply project.

Conservative councillor Tom Marshall also criticised the island group for not publishing the minutes of their recent meetings.