THE Cecil Park Clinic in Pinner and the Northolt Road Clinic in South Harrow are to close it was confirmed on Tuesday.

They will be replaced by a new £7 million "health and social care centre" in Alexandra Avenue, South Harrow.

The final decision was taken by Harrow Primary Care Trust against a background of disquiet from residents.

Richard Milner, the trust's director of corporate performance, said: "All services are being transferred to the new clinic.

"We are aware of the problem of access and we have been in contact with Dial-a-ride to ensure that transport for the vulnerable will be in place."

The cost to a patient who needed to travel up to five miles to the new clinic would be £1, he said.

Longer journeys would cost £1.50.

The sale of the sites of the two clinics to be shut is expected to raise at least £1.4 million, of which, the trust said, £400,000 could be re-invested in health care.

It emerged at the meeting that the trust had ignored a petition of 300 signatures because, Mr Milner said, the wording was negtive, although he admitted this might not have been intentional.

"I would have signed it if it was presented to me in that fashion," he added.

One Pinner resident who attended the meeting said: "We have been left with no choice and the consultation was a farce."

The transfer of services from Northolt Road and Cecil Park will take between three and six months.

But the trust said it would take longer to negotiate more frequent bus services to the new clinic.

Mr Milner said: "The new centre at Alexandra Avenue is something that the whole borough can be proud of."

The PCT is under increasing pressure from the London Strategic Health Authority to balance its budget deficit of more than £9 million by 2008.

After two months into its tough financial recovery plan, the PCT is thought to be 24 per cent behind its planned savings of £1.3 million, but this figure has yet to be confirmed.