Residents on a 3,000-home estate are no nearer getting a GP surgery even though plans for it were first passed 17 years ago.

Outline permission for Great Western Park in Didcot, which will see 3,300 homes built by 2026, was initially granted in 2008 with a surgery included in plans.

Years later the land which would be allocated for the surgery, and which an existing GP practice would be interested in running, is still empty.

Dr Rachel Ward, of Woodlands Medical Centre, said: "We’re getting about 100 new patients a week, which is a crazy number.

"Our practice, we closed our list for a while in order to catch up. We have got some capacity at the moment, but we’re really, really struggling for actual space."

Ian Snowdon, a district and county councillor, said he has been arguing for a surgery on the estate for over decade and has had "numerous meetings" with authorities.

He said: "You have a meeting and all the stakeholders sit down and it sounds so positive, you think yes, we’re going to go for it.

"Ed Vaizey campaigned for it and when David Johnston became MP he arranged a meeting. Then he got exactly the same update I’ve had every six months for the past seven years or more – as long as I’ve been a councillor."

He added: "With all these new houses being built the people moving into them have to stick with their old GP wherever that might be."

He said there are also now some concerns about the plot available having been 'outgrown' as Great Western Park has expanded exponentially.

Didcot MP David Johnston said: "Great Western Park residents have been waiting years and years for the GP surgery that they were promised.

"This delay is completely unacceptable. Every time there is a local election coming the Lib Dems running the council pretend they're about to make progress with it, but after the election people see its no further forward.

"I have raised this in Parliament multiple times, both as an issue by itself and as part of my broader campaigning for more health facilities for our area.

"I will continue to do this and fully support the great work that Councillor Snowdon is doing to hold them accountable.”

NHS Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for delivering GP practices.

A spokesperson said: "We are closely monitoring the number of GP patient registrations in Didcot and the surrounding area.

“In addition to the new GP premises planned for Great Western Park, we are working with Woodlands Medical Centre on expanding facilities in its existing building to meet demand for care.”

Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Councils said it was in the hands of the ICB to develop their business case "although we have been doing our utmost to cooperate with the ICB throughout this process".

But the councils did say the ICB recently approved the business case for creating a new building and agreed to provide funding for it in addition to the money from developer contributions - known as section 106 funding.

A spokesperson said: "The Vale of White Horse District Council is currently working with housing developer Taylor Wimpey to take transfer of the site, as set out in the section 106 agreement.

"Once the site is transferred to the Vale, the council will enter into an agreement for lease with the NHS’s primary care developer who will build the new premises and then lease it to Woodlands Medical Centre which will run it as a branch surgery."

They added that the councils and local GP practices "have been working closely for many years to try to bring forward an allocated site at Great Western Park to provide new GP premises for the growing population".