A Labour councillor has branded the failure to reopen the refurbished Brunswick Park Health Centre as “unacceptable”.

Speaking after yesterday’s meeting of Barnet Borough Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Brunswick Park councillor Andreas Ioannidis criticised the council for failing to fix a date for when the centre would be opened, after “all the fuss” there had been over the issue.

He said: “Even Barnet Council does not know what is going on. Some 6,000 people are looked after by the practice, it is unacceptable they still don’t know which GP to go to or where to go.”

The centre, which was gutted by fire in 2010, has been ready to use since December but has remained closed due to a dispute between GPs and NHS England and NHS Property Services over an increase in service charges from £,5000 to £11,000.

Speaking at the meeting, head of primary care at NHS England, Neil Roberts, denied there was a standoff and said he was confident GPs and NHS Property Services would be able to come to an agreement.

He said: “What is clear to me is that the footprint that the practice will occupy is larger, therefore my take is that it is not unreasonable that service charges would therefore increase.

“I don’t see this as a sticking point. As soon as we give the practices sensible, detailed explanations so they can see a set of numbers that will show them the position in 2009 through to the position in 2013 then I think that will be understood and accepted.”

Mr Roberts added he was currently working on a “two track solution” with the GPs, which would involve merging the practices.

He also said one of the GPs, Dr Lakhani, was interested in purchasing the practice from NHS Property services and would not move back unless he was able to do so.

Mr Roberts added: “I have a commitment to get this to work.”

Committee chairman Cllr Alison Cornelius said NHS England should submit a full report to the council by July 4 if the dispute had not been resolved.

Brunswick Park Conservative Councillor Lisa Rutter said she had been “hoping for more progress", but was pleased a report had been asked for.

She added: “Hopefully by the next meeting we will get a full report. I and the residents of Brunswick Park are very eager to get results.”

But Cllr Ioannidis said he was disappointed the council had not been able to gain any firm results from the meeting and the guidelines on what would happen were constantly changing.

He said: “They move from one argument to another. First they talked about service charges of £25,000, now they’re talking about selling it. In November they were unable to move in because of an issue with the gas pipes.

“This situation was supposed to be temporary but it is quickly becoming permanent, while in the meantime it is costing the taxpayer £200 a day to keep the centre shut.”