COMPLAINTS from scores of residents forced developers to re-think a planned housing project on the site of the eagerly awaited new Alcester hospital.

A hospital and nursing home is to be built on Fields Park Drive and plans have also been put forward for a housing development.

The housing project needs to be approved as the sale of this land will go towards the overall cost of the new hospital.

But when residents of nearby retirement complex Oversley House saw the plans, Stratford District Council received 45 letters of objection and a petition.

Concerns included lack of privacy, rubbish containers in view, loss of light, over-development of the site, insufficient parking, removal of trees and an increased threat of trespass, noise and vandalism.

A council report stated residents' concerns had been a key issue so the number of units had been reduced and located further away from Oversley House and protected trees, and bins had been removed from the retirement complex's boundary and replaced with private gardens.