A walk-in medical clinic on Reid Street has been given planning approval to open, according to its owner.

Marico Thomas, the chief executive of Bermuda Medical Specialties Group, said the Health Express Urgent Care Centre received the green light to open after a “flurry of activity”.

Mr Thomas said: “Our staff are both relieved and excited to finally be at this point and have commenced operations from the space on a limited basis.

“We do need to hire additional personnel, move in a few pieces of equipment and update configurations on various pieces of software, but ... we are in, and we are open.”

The clinic was expected to open on July 1, but Mr Thomas said planning issues had delayed the project.

Blackhawk Consulting, part of Mr Thomas’s business group, applied for planning permission last year to change the use of a site on Hamilton’s Reid Street from a retail unit to a walk-in clinic.

Mr Thomas said the plan was approved in February and work to convert the building started, but he was later told the application had to be resubmitted because of an administrative error.

He added that the company was told verbally and in writing it could continue work on the Reid Street building and the application was sent in again in April.

But planning permission was denied by the DAB in June because the plan contravened the 2015 City of Hamilton Plan.

Mr Thomas said last week he had launched an appeal against the decision.