NEW plans for up to 800 homes on the northern edge of Malvern have been released - without the school promised in an earlier version of the scheme.

Developers Gleeson Developments Ltd and Welbeck Strategic Land LLP want to build the homes on land at Newland, beyond Malvern Link.

As well as the homes, the original application, submitted in November 2015, included commercial development, a primary school, shops and a pub, and a community hall, playing fields and cemetery.

But a revised version, sent in to Malvern Hills District Council this month, omits the school, with the developers promising money towards expanding primary schools off the site.

However, councillor Paul Tuthill, who represents the Link on Malvern Town Council and Worcestershire County Council, says he is dismayed by the change.

He said: "This is absolutely astonishing. I know that a new one-form entry primary school is being created at Malvern Vale, but I don't think this is going to be able to cope with the children from 800 new homes.

"And without a school on the site, the traffic problems as parents take their children to and from school each day are horrendous. I cannot understand why the developers have done this."

Alistair Watson of Welbeck said: "The school was included in the original plan, but then the county council told us that it wasn't wanted and that meant a major re-design of the plan."

Other changes in the revised plans include: removing the cemetery, increasing the size of the playing fields to include three football pitches and a cricket pitch, enlarging the community hall, and increasing the 'green infrastructure', which includes open spaces, woodland, community orchards and allotments.

PANEL

In a related development, detailed plans for an estate of 50 homes on open land at Eastward Road, close to the Newland site, have been sent in to the district council by Lioncourt Homes.

An outline application was submitted in 2014 and turned down by Malvern Hills District Council, but Lioncourt went to appeal and the decision was overturned in 2015.

The new application contains details of the estate's layout and landscaping and the design of the houses.

Although the principle of developing the site is established by the appeal decision, several residents have objected to the latest plan, citing loss of the gap between Malvern and Leigh Sinton, pressure on the road network and an overtaxed sewage system.