Walkden residents have overwhelmingly backed plans for £45 million worth of improvements to health services in the area.

Proposals by the city's Primary Care Trust (PCT) to build 10 new health and social facilities over the next five years -- including one in Walkden -- won the support of local people in a recent survey.

The centres, which have been dubbed "super clinics", will offer services such as minor surgery in addition to those traditionally provided by GPs.

More than 80 per cent of those questioned in Salford said that the new plans would make it even easier to get the sort of healthcare they needed.

Newly-built facilities in each of those areas will form part of the £25 million first phase of the massive spending programme.

Construction of the project -- entitled Salford Health Investment For Tomorrow (SHIFT) -- is due to begin next summer.

Detailed plans of exactly where the new Walkden clinic will be built have yet to be agreed.