Residents in Valley Park using a portable cabin as a doctor's surgery are to get a new £830,000 purpose-built health centre on the estate, it was announced this week.

Plans for the Healthy Living Centre project were given the green light this week with the project promising to bring a much-needed doctors surgery and community centre to one of the most deprived parts of the borough.

With an estimated opening date of 2004, the centre will be built on Franklin Way and will also provide a base for a nurse, crche and an IT training room.

The scheme has been made possible with funding from central government, the Broad Green Sure Start Programme and the South Wandle Regeneration Partnership.

Councillor Ian Payne, cabinet member for economic development and employment, said: "We're hoping the new centre will put the heart into Valley Park and help local people of all ages get access to high quality services.

"At the moment local people are getting by with a temporary doctors' surgery in a portable cabin, but this will move things into a different league. It can't open soon enough."

Valley Park Healthy Living Centre is the twelfth and most ambitious planned for the borough, with branches already open in Thornton Heath, Shrublands and New Addington.

The network of centres has been co-ordinated and developed by Croydon Voluntary Action with support from Croydon Council and the Croydon Primary Care Trust.

Services already available at the centres include stop smoking courses, employment and training advice, meet and greet schemes for refugees and ethnic minority exercise sessions.

The Healthy Living Centre network is a five year, £2 million project, half of which comes from the New Opportunities Fund.