THE city council has put the final nail in the coffin on the county's hospital trust multi-million pound request from developers building more than 2,000 homes on the edge of the city.

Worcester City Council's planning committee backed decisions made by Malvern Hills District Council to reject Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust's late request for more than £7 million to help cover the cost of future demand brought on by a series of already-approved housing developments.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust requested £7,723,287 from developers building thousands of homes on the edge of the city and in villages near Worcester to ensure new and future patients are cared for properly and to prevent the already-packed hospital from becoming even more oversubscribed.

Malvern Hills District Council and Wychavon District Council already agreed to reject the plea with Worcester City Council the last to have its say at a planning meeting on Thursday (September 19).

Councillor Alan Amos said it was an"enormous omission" by the hospital trust not to ask for money when the plans first came to council planners and he would have put the needs of the NHS in front of affordable housing.

He said: "I don't think there's anyone around this table that doesn't think the hospital needs the money or deserves the money."

City council planning development manager Alan Coleman said the three south Worcestershire planning departments were objecting to the hospital's request because it disagreed with its methodology not because of the lateness of the request.

Cllr Roger Berry said: "It is a tragedy that the acute trust is desperately short of money but it is not the city council's responsibility to help a cash-strapped health authority. Central government funding is the NHS and central government funding should always be for the NHS."

Cllr Berry said it was the hospital trust that had centralised facilities for all of south Worcester in Worcester and the council should not have to pay towards its "historic mistakes."

The huge developments, which form part of urban extensions to the west and south of Worcester and were approved between 2017 and January this year, include a massive £500 million, 2,204-home 'super village between St Peter's and Kempsey, a 255 homes plan between by the A4440 on the edge of the city and two massive plans in Lower Broadheath near Worcester which total 2,365 homes.

Planning applications are usually approved in principle before planners and the developer work out legally-binding funding agreements - known as section 106 money - to pay for other public infrastructure and facilities such as bus routes, schools, community centres and parks.