WORK has begun on a new doctor's surgery on the old Princess Margaret Hospital site.

The £1.3m healthcare centre will serve residents living in and around the new Angel Ridge development.

The surgery is scheduled to be completed early next year, with work taking place in two stages.

By the end of this month, the first floor of the healthcare centre will be constructed, allowing the rest of the construction to take shape.

By the end of the year, the pharmacy is scheduled to have been completed.

The doctors' surgery is due to be finished and opening its doors in March.

The centre is being built by Swindon-based construction company Morgan Ashurst.

Sean O'Connor, of Surgery Developments and Mark Lewis, of Lloyds Pharmacy, joined Morgan Ashurst area manager Greg Wells and architect Will Durman, of CMS Bath, to help lay the first bricks at the new site.

"It's always an exciting time on site when work begins," said Mr Wells.

"We're thrilled to have been awarded this project and with considerable expertise in the health sector I'm confident we will provide local people in Swindon with an excellent new healthcare centre.

"The development is ideally placed to serve the growing population in this area and provides two amenities under one roof.

"We hope to complete the project with the minimum amount of disruption caused to local residents," he said.

The Princess Margaret Hospital closed its doors at 7am on December 1, 2002.

Work began to raze the building to the ground in February 2004.

And soon the building, which had stood prominently on the Swindon skyline since the 1950s, started to become a pile of rubble.

The first residents moved into their Angel Ridge homes in February 2006.

It was named by Ernest Austin, who won a BBC Radio Swindon competition to come up with a name for the project.

His suggestion was the most popular with voters.

"Firstly, it is built on a ridge. Then all the nurses were angels," he told the Adver at the official opening of the development.