THE make-or-break decision on the beleaguered King Edward VII hospital, and the uncertainty hanging over its 350 staff and the wider community, could be made next week.

On the table at next Wednesday's Chichester District Council area development control committee will be plans to redevelop the site to provide more than 350 homes. Included is the conversion of the Grade II listed hospital building into 222 apartments and 21 key workers' flats.

A total of 108 town houses and maisonettes are proposed, along with a new 134-bed hospital.

An underground car park and multi-purpose community hall and fitness centre is also in the scheme, plus a £3.6 million contribution from the developers, Lincoln Holdings, to CDC for affordable housing, education, transport and libraries. But because the proposals could be seen as a departure from the local plan, there is the possibility they may be called in for a decision by government ministers.

This week, West Surrey County Council lent its support to the retention of hospital facilities at the site. It was responding to a consultation by CDC on the application, which forms the key to a rescue package for the Midhurst hospital, which went into voluntary liquidation this year.

But it says that before CDC grants planning permission for the hospital site, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty where the county county would normally resist major new development, it should be satisfied on a number of points.

Among them is to "secure the long-term future for necessary health care provision at the site without the need for further development".

Fernhurst county councillor Lieutenant Colonel Tex Pemberton, the cabinet member for strategic environmental services said: "It will be for the district council to make the final decision and I cannot pre-judge what that will be.

"However, we are saying that there could be a health development on this important site provided the district council is satisfied that the social and economic benefits are substanial enough to constitute very exceptional circumstances."

The meeting takes place on Wednesday, October 15, at the district council offices at East Pallant House, Chichester, at 10 am.