HEALTH service bosses have been criticised for allowing a disused building in Jericho to languish for almost three years.

The former Jericho Health Centre, on the corner of Cranham Street and Walton Street, closed in July 2012 when its services were moved to a new building nearby.

The building has remained unused and boarded-up since then, with people claiming it is becoming an eyesore.

NHS Property Services, which manages the building, said it planned to have the building on the market by July 1.

City councillor Susanna Pressel said the building should have been sold more quickly.

Mrs Pressel said the former health centre had been “blighting” the shopping area in Walton Street.

She added: “It is shocking that this valuable site has been standing empty for three years.

“The local community has had to put up with a derelict building in a prominent place and I have had to keep asking NHS Property Services to clean off graffiti and fly-posting.

“Worse still, the NHS has been missing out on hundreds of thousands of pounds that it could have got if it had leased it out or sold it when they should have.

“It is yet another example of the utter chaos and wasted money that was caused by the coalition Government’s unwanted reorganisation of the NHS.”

Daisies Flower Shop co-owner Richard Bailey, who runs the nearby business with wife Sheila, said the old health centre could be used for retail.

He said: “It has been boarded up for far too long. It doesn’t give a good impression and makes the area look run-down.”

NHS Property Services spokesman Alex Cameron said: “The property has been declared surplus to NHS requirements by healthcare commissioners.

“No other public bodies have expressed an interest in the property after it was listed as being available for use.”

Mr Cameron added: “Boarding at the site is to ensure the building is secure while it is prepared for sale.

“NHS Property Services is required to dispose of surplus NHS sites in a way that provides best value for the NHS, the taxpayer and the local community.”

He said money from the old centre’s sale would not be prioritised for local health schemes and would instead go to a national pot.

Julia Stackhouse, spokeswoman for Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said the CCG had registered the building as “surplus” – so it could be put up for sale – in October.

She added: “On April 1, 2013, most former Primary Care Trust premises transferred to the ownership of NHS Property Services, which included the now vacant Jericho Health Centre.

“We were asked to declare it surplus to our requirements sometime in 2014.

“There was a delay as we hadn’t considered ourselves to have a commissioning interest in the property, as its main use was as a GP surgery and those services are commissioned by NHS England.”