THE owners of a Gwent surgery destroyed by fire are hoping to start work on a new building by the end of July.

Candwr Brook Medical and Dentist Centre in Stokes Court, Ponthir, was destroyed in a £250,000 blaze last August.

Recently Torfaen council approved plans for a new medical centre to be built on the site.

The original centre was opened in 1999 and was a two-storey building complete with 15 parking spaces.

Since the fire, patients of doctors Jeff Thomas, Ann Thomas, John Diggle and Nigel Holgate, have travelled to the Isca Medical Centre in High Street, Caerleon.

Patients of the Peter Walker and Associates dental practice have been slightly less inconvenienced after Mr Walker had a temporary building erected on the site.

Before that building opened, Mr Walker's 1,500 patients were transferred to his other practice in St Mellons for five weeks.

Gaynor Pick, practice manager at Isca Medical Centre, which has 9,000 people on its register - 2,000 of whom regularly attended the Ponthir branch - said she did not know how much the cost of replacing Candwr Medical Centre would be.

But she added: "We are stuck for space here. Patients have suffered because we have had to share rooms and had to cut back some surgeries.

"We are now looking forward to having the new building, more space and better facilities for our patients and staff."

As the Argus reported, a 2,000-name petition was handed to Torfaen's planning department earlier this year calling for the surgery to be rebuilt as soon as possible.

The original plans were delayed as some residents raised objections to the exact location of the new surgery.

The revised plans show the location of the building has been slightly moved, and it will be two storeys high instead of one.