THE developer hoping to build a nursing home on the site of Malvern's old community hospital has put in a new planning application.

The latest application by Montpelier Estates, follows the refusal of its previous plan, which was turned down by Malvern Hills District Council at a meeting in June last year.

The decision, made against the advice of planning officers, was that knocking down the existing building would have a "significant adverse impact" on the area and the "proposed replacement building would appear as an awkward alien feature in the context of the adjacent Victorian buildings".

Montpelier has appealed against that refusal, and the appeal is currently in progress.

According to Montpelier, the design of the latest application echoes the 'Italianate' architecture of the houses on the opposite side of Lansdowne Crescent.

But the chairman of Malvern Civic Society says the latest plan is still not acceptable because it involves knocking down the hospital building.

Clive Hooper said: "Our view is that retaining the old building is of paramount importance, and the case still has not been made by Montpelier for demolition.

"The district council itself said in its supplementary planning document of 2007 that it should be preserved.

"We think that conversion into residences is still the best solution."

Malvern Town Council has also objected to the proposal, saying: "The council would like the majority of the building to be retained, especially the existing façade, and for any development to reflect and be sympathetic to the history of the building and the surrounding area."

Resident Ben Roberts said: "I do not believe that there is justification for the demolition of this characterful building. I believe that it is viable to convert the existing building into domestic dwellings, and thereby save a heritage asset."

Montpelier Estates has maintained all along that it is impossible to adapt the hospital building into a nursing home in an economically feasible way.

Two earlier schemes were submitted to the council in 2015; one in a contemporary architectural style and the other more traditional. Both were refused in 2016.

The hospital was a gift to the town from philanthropist C W Dyson Perrins, who also gave the town its library and Dyson Perrins school.

The building became redundant as a hospital when the new community hospital in Worcester Road, Malvern Link, opened in 2011.