MALVERN Hills District Council's vision for the future of North Site will be unveiled next month.

Officers are finalising the ratio of housing, industry and community facilities they will recommend for the 48-acre site.

A development strategy for the district, which will include the North Site recommendations, will be put before the new planning committee for approval when it meets for the first time after the May 1 elections.

The Ministry of Defence, which owns the land, wants to sell the whole site to a developer before March 2004, with an agreement in place that would allow the land to be covered with up to 630 houses. It has outlined two further options, which would see varying amounts of the site given over to industry.

However, the council has not yet revealed the type of development it favours for what is the biggest "brown field" zone in the district. Concerns have been raised that roads, schools and health services would struggle to cope with such a large influx of new residents.

Planning director Jeff Chambers of Business Environments, the firm working on behalf of the MoD, warned that if the council does not make its position clear within the next two months it will be forced to rethink its plans. Without a development brief in place, the site would be less valuable, as any buyer would be gambling on what MHDC planners would let it build. The MoD could face a choice between selling the site at a knock-down price or putting back its disposal deadline.

"It's going to be difficult for us to accommodate any more slippage," said Mr Chambers. "We want to start marketing the site by June or July. We would hope by that stage to know what the position is."