A NEW Covid vaccination centre is being set up on a plot of land in Taunton that hasn't been used in years.

Temporary buildings have been lifted into place by a crane at Firepool.

People will be able to obtain their jabs there from early next month.

The facility will replace the current vaccination centre at Taunton Racecourse.

Pre-booked vaccination appointments and walk-ins will continue to run seven days a week at the out-of-town racecourse until the new site is ready to open.

People aged 17 and three quarters can book a slot through the National Booking Service, or if aged 16 and over people can walk-in to get a Pfizer jab – every day, between 8.30am and 7pm, without booking first.

Work is taking place over the coming weeks to prepare the specially designed centre on Firepool, which used to be home to the former Taunton Market, until it relocated to North Petherton in early 2008.

When it is ready, the existing site, which has administered more than 150,000 jabs, will close to enable the racecourse team to return to business as usual.

Existing vaccination teams and many volunteers from the racecourse site will move across to he new site in early October.

Andy Heron, joint senior responsible officer for the Somerset Covid vaccination programme, said: "The vaccination programme in Somerset has been extremely successful, thanks to the support of hundreds of GPs, nurses, vaccinators and volunteers.

"We are very grateful to the team at Taunton Racecourse and the local community for their ongoing support throughout the vaccination programme.

"This vaccination site has been very popular, delivering over 150,000 jabs since January – an incredible achievement.

"As part of our ongoing planning for the Covid vaccination programme, we need to ensure that we can make it as easy as possible for people to continue to get their Covid jabs.

"We are really pleased to have found a new central site in Taunton with good public access and the capacity to deliver a large number of daily vaccinations."

The NHS, Somerset West and Taunton Council and Somerset County Council staff will work together over the coming weeks to put arrangements in place to get the site ready for opening at the beginning of October.