PLANS to redevelop Bradford on Avon's former hospital finally won the backing of the town council on Monday night.

Bath-based Future Heritage wants to transform the five-and-a-half acre site into a nursing home with up to 42 beds, 27 units for assisted living, 11 private homes and some office space.

The town council recommended a previous application by Future Heritage be turned down in February as it was concerned about the effects one particular building would have on neighbouring homes.

The building was considered too high and would have meant a loss of privacy and light for neighbours.

At a meeting on Monday night, the chairman of Preservation Trusts planning committee spoke out in favour of the application.

Jocelyn Feilding said: "We support this application wholeheartedly. The applicants and agents were very sensitive to both statutory and non-statutory consultees.

"The only question the Preservation Trust has is our disappointment in the proposed bungalow in the walled garden. But this is not something we want to fight."

The latest plans would only have one house in the existing walled garden, whereas previously it was planned to have four houses sharing the half-an-acre garden.

John Cottle, of the Friends of Bradford Community Healthcare, who would own the freehold to the nursing home, said: "The developer has done an excellent job on this."

Chris Beaver, of Nash Partnership, the architects for the scheme, said the plans had been severely delayed by West Wiltshire District Council's planning department, which was struggling because of the impending change to a unitary authority.

Mr Beaver said: "We had a meeting with the case officer and were promised a review letter summing up the planning authoritys position but this never came.

"It has been particularly difficult to progress this application without any feedback from the planning officer.

"We only received acknowledgement that the new application had been received last week."

Stephen Green, of Future Heritage, said they had worked hard to reduce the impact of one of the buildings by sinking it into the ground and reducing the number of windows.

The council's planning and town development committee recommended the plans be approved by the district council but questioned the need for gates to the new entrance on Berryfield Road.The committee also decided that district councillor Janet Repton should "call in" the plans at district council to help speed up a decision on the scheme.