Community leaders in Peasedown St John are calling for a vaccination centre to be opened in their village.

Local Councillors, Karen Walker and Sarah Bevan, met at a virtual Zoom meeting with NHS and council chiefs last Wednesday afternoon to discuss the idea.

Cllr Karen Walker (Independent, Peasedown St John) said: "With a variety of vaccines against Covid-19 now available, the government needs to ramp up its plans to vaccinate as many people as possible. All of us want to see life return to normal, with a round-the-clock mass vaccination programme delivered across all our communities.

Peasedown St John is the biggest village in B&NES. With almost 7,000 residents, and a variety of large indoor venues, there is no reason why it can't be chosen as a location for a vaccination centre."

At present, the only centre open in North East Somerset is the Somer Centre in Midsomer Norton. Residents can only attend if they're invited to receive the vaccine, if they are registered with a GP, and belong to the qualifying age group, currently 80 years of age or over, or are in a care home, are care workers and/or front line staff.

When residents receive their invitation to receive the vaccine, they will be given an evidence card with the batch number on it to use as proof of inoculated status, and their GP practice will add this to their patient record on the database.

Cllr Saran Bevan (Independent, Peasedown St John) added:

"Our meeting with NHS managers was a positive one. They did like the idea of a centre opening in Peasedown St John and have now confirmed, following lobbying from Cllr Walker and myself, that venues are being considered.

We're now in regular contact with health chiefs to look at which buildings might be suitable, and how soon vaccinations can begin."

As well as the Somer Centre, there are two vaccination centres in Bath: The Pavilion currently and Bath Race Course from 25th January.

Karen and Sarah will be keeping residents updated on news of a possible vaccination centre opening in Peasedown St John via their e-newsletter. Readers can subscribe by emailing [email protected]