THE new Dorset coronavirus testing centre – the county's first – has opened and started operating in Poole.

The park and ride in Creekmoor is now up and running for frontline staff across the county.

The site, which has most recently held a park and ride facility for Poole over the Christmas period, has only had limited use since it was opened in 2003.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds was spent bringing it back into order in 2018 for use during major road schemes in Poole town centre.

It has also been earmarked as a “holding site” for vehicles travelling to The Port of Poole as part of Brexit preparations.

And now the park and ride has been converted to house the area's first drive-through coronavirus testing centre which was first revealed last week.

It follows concerns from care providers in Dorset of the “incredibly unfair” arrangement which has seen them told the closest testing site for their staff was either Plymouth or Gatwick Airport.

The facility will be managed by the Department of Health through its partnership with Deloitte and is part of its work to set up “around 50” such facilities across the country.

Council leader Vikki Slade said the council had worked hard to make the park and ride ready.

“We have moved extremely quickly to identify a suitable site and complete all necessary arrangements and site clearance required to make it available to the Department of Health and Social Care, so that they can begin testing our local NHS and key workers as soon as possible," she said.

"This means that Dorset’s key workers will have much more convenient access to testing, which is very welcome indeed.”

The centre is for key workers with appointments booked through their employers.

People are urged not to turn up uninvited and security will be in place around the clock.