CONTROVERSIAL plans to knock down Malvern’s old hospital and build a care home will be going before planners next week.

Colchester-based Caring Homes Group/Montpelier Estates has applied to build the 46-bed home on the site at Lansdowne Crescent, close to the town centre.

The building became surplus to requirements after the opening of the new community hospital in Malvern Link in 2010.

In 2015, Montpelier submitted two alternative applications for a care home on the site, one in a traditional style, the other more modern.

But both were rejected by Malvern Hills District Council planners, who objected to the loss of the historic building and the scale and mass of the proposed replacements.

The latest application is on the agenda when the district council’s southern area planning committee meets on Wednesday.

This time the planning officers are recommending approval, despite continued objections from local residents and bodies including the Victorian Society, Historic England and Malvern Civic Society.

The civic society says that there is no justification for the demolition of the hospital, which is in the Malvern Conservation Area, especially since guidance issued in 2006 called for the retention and conversion of the building.

And residents have raised numerous objections, including the size and design of the new building, the loss of the historically significant building, and the impact of the new development on the Victorian crescent.

But planners say that although the loss of the hospital building would harm the conservation area, this is outweighed by the fact that the development brings a vacant site back into use, and the application is the best viable use of the site The meeting is at 6pm at the Council Chamber, Avenue Road.