A DECISION to build more than 90 homes on land next to the Alexandra Hospital has been deferred.

The joint outline planning application submitted by SevenHomes and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust is proposing to build 92 homes, featuring a mix of one-bedroom apartments and two, three and four-bedroom houses.

Redditch Borough Council’s planning committee met on April 19 to discuss the plans which had been recommended for approval by planning officers.

However, members decided to defer the planning application as they wanted more information about covenants and the collection of highways data.

The northern half of the proposed site includes 198 spaces for a staff car park but the loss of spaces has already been mitigated as a separate approved planning application will lead to the creation of two new car parks on the hospital site.

Redditch Advertiser: The proposed site.The proposed site. (Image: SevenHomes.)

There are also three empty residential blocks which were constructed in the 1980s when the provision of on-site staff accommodation was a part of hospital operations.

A document prepared for the planning committee states: “These apartments have remained unoccupied since June 2013 when these three blocks were decommissioned.

“Following this, they were put on the Department for Health and Social Care Register of surplus land since December 2016.

“Therefore, the loss of the parking spaces and the vacant apartments has no material impact upon the operation of Alexandra Hospital, but in fact would rejuvenate this area of brownfield land to more productive residential use that would include greater landscaping.

“Prior to the submission of this application, the trust identified the whole application site as being surplus to healthcare requirements.”

The proposed access to the site is via Quinneys Lane and the current access road to the visitor and staff car parking areas.