MALVERN Civic Society is calling for imaginative proposals to help preserve the town's old hospital.

Last week, the Malvern Gazette reported that two planning applications to demolish the building and build a nursing home on the site had been thrown out by the district council.

Society chairman Clive Hooper said: “This decision is greatly to be welcomed, and it fully supports the strong stand Malvern Civic Society has maintained for the retention of this heritage asset.

"The society has always argued that if the proposals were implemented they would have an adverse impact upon the town's historic environment and would result in harm to the Great Malvern Conservation Area.

"The decision by Malvern Hills District Council should now leave the opportunity open for imaginative proposals to come forward for the use of this significant building and its preservation as an historic asset."

The society had earlier campaigned for the building to be listed, with the support of Historic England, the Victorian Society and local historic building consultants Rock Davidson Associates, but the request was refused.

However, the report accompanying the minister’s decision noted the architectural interest of the building, and its important local presence.

Mr Hooper said: “The Civic society has always recognised the local importance of the old hospital building, and this is reflected by the building’s submission by the society to MHDC earlier this year, together with other properties, for consideration for its local listing.

"We also recognise the value which MHDC has attached to preserving the building both by this decision and the past protection it has given to the former hospital: it produced a supplementary planning document in 2006 outlining the desirability of keeping it.”

The former community hospital was built between 1909 and 1911 by William Henman FRIBA and was given to the people of Malvern by benefactor C W Dyson Perrins.

Developer Montpelier Estates, which made the applications that have now been refused, says it plans to return with a new application for the site.