Under the Government's £250 million plan to improve health services, every English Primary Care Trust (PCT) will have its own GP-led polyclinic, which will be home to a large number of GPs and other health professionals.

The plans for the new centre also include longer opening hours to allow patients access 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Fears had been expressed that, should the proposals be given the green light, up to eight surgeries in Peterborough would be forced to close.

But today a Peterborough PCT spokesman said: "Under the PCT's proposals for Equitable Access to Primary Medical Care, there are no plans to close down family doctor surgeries and replace them with polyclinics."

Peterborough City Council members were so concerned about the potential closures that they wrote to Health Secretary Alan Johnson MP expressing their "strong opposition to Government plans to railroad through the introduction of polyclinics in England".

The letter, written on behalf of the city council by principle democratic services officer David Blackburn said: "The council notes that ministers want to replace local GP surgeries with impersonal super-surgeries, meaning 1,700 family doctor surgeries could be closed down – including eight in the Peterborough area.

"It is concerned that in London, which is being used as the test bed for these severe cuts, early geographical analysis indicates that the average distance to a GP will increase from half a mile to 1.5 miles once the 150 polyclinics are introduced.

"It further notes that extrapolation of the London figures indicates that within the Peterborough City Council area, the average distance to a GP's surgery will increase from 1.2 to 3.9 miles."

In a response from Mr Johnson's office a spokesman said: "With the new GP health centres, patients will be able to remain registered with their own GP, but also use the services provided by the new health centre if they wish.

"The new service should also reduce unnecessary visits to accident and emergency departments."

The spokesman added that Peterborough PCT would be running a public consultation on the subject before any decision was made to open a new clinic.

In a speech to Parliament earlier this year, North West Cambridgshire MP Shailesh Vara spoke out against the proposals, saying that the Government did not realise the importance of community surgeries to residents.