DEVELOPERS intent on building 800 new houses on the edge of Malvern should make sure the site does not become a second Malvern Vale, a leading town councillor has warned.

Cllr Pat Mewton said the mistakes of the Vale site, on the old North Site military base, must not be repeated if the open fields at Newland, just outside Malvern Link, are built on.

"We can now see that the builders at North Site got away with blue murder down there when it comes to not finishing the roads and that sort of thing." he said. "We don't want the same thing to happen here."

He was speaking as representatives of Gleeson and Welbeck, the developers behind the plan, visited the town council's strategic planning committee to brief members on the scheme.

Paul Hill of planning consultants RPS told members that what they were seeing, and what had been shown to members of the public at an exhibition two weeks earlier, was the outline plan for the site.

As well as housing, the proposal features two separate areas of employment land, a school and local centre, playing fields, allotments and a cemetery.

The main entrance to the new development will be off the Worcester Road/Townsend Way roundabout, which will have to be extensively rebuilt.

Councillors queried the wisdom of a single access for the whole estate, but transport consultant Rob Hollins said it was a normal procedure, and there would be a second emergency access off Lower Howsell Road.

He said: "There was a suggestion of a second access near the Swan Inn, but the access would have to cross the buffer zone between the development and Newland, creating speculation about future development on the buffer zone."

Cllr Ian Hopwood said the houses nearest the railway line might need some sort of sound screening. He said: "I live near there, and at night the last trains make a hell of a racket as they head off to Worcester. The houses by the line wouldn't be able to keep their windows open on warm summer nights."

But Mr Hill said extensive acoustic surveys had been carried out and the noise was within acceptable levels.