Haslington residents have slated a 'greedy' developer who has ditched plans for a medical centre on their new housing estate and wants to build extra flats instead.

Bovis Homes was granted permission on appeal in 2014 for the 245 home Hazelmere Development on Crewe Road, together with medical centre/community use and public open space.

Now the developer has submitted an application to Cheshire East under the new name, Vistry Homes Ltd, to pull the plug on the medical centre and build 17 flats instead.

Haslington councillor Steve Edgar (Con) told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The medical centre application had a three year span in which it was to be taken up by clinical commissioning or doctor's surgery or whatever.

"I would like to know how hard the company pushed the medical centre."

Nearby Hungerford Medical Centre in Crewe appeared to know nothing about the plans for the health facility.

The practice has written to the council saying: "As a local GP whose practice boundary covers this area, I would express my surprise that a plot of land for a medical centre has not been widely discussed within the local CCG and amongst medical practices…

"I would ask for evidence to be presented that every effort has been made to approach interested parties to exhaust options to use the site for its intended purpose. Given that space for health care premises is often not available, it seems a shame to lose a potential opportunity for expanding health care provision in the local area, without it being fully explored."

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Residents who have moved on to the estate are furious and several have written to the council.

One said: "The proposed medical centre played a big role in our decision to buy our home, not just in Haslington but in the particular estate.

"That's what we were promised and therefore, that's what we should get because this was a massive selling point."

Another said: "We bought our house based upon a medical centre being built."

One angry resident has told the council: "This is a clear case of greedy developers just attempting to squeeze every pound of profit out of this project at the expense of much needed medical facilities for the local community. An utterly disgraceful proposal."

Another said: "A medical centre was proposed, not apartments. With the Haslington Surgery already struggling with numbers, a medical centre would relieve this pressure. People are seriously losing faith in Cheshire East."

Altogether 58 people have contacted the council so far about the flats scheme – none support it.

The planning decision notice issued by Cheshire East to Bovis for the site in December 2016 states: "The strategic planning board would advise that in the event that the land allocated for a medical centre is not used for such purposes then the land shall be used for community uses."

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One objector stated: "If Cheshire East Council accepts this change of plan and the land is to be used for a purpose other than stated in the approval dated October 2016 residents would find it helpful to understand the rationale.

"It would also be helpful to understand what protection there would be from future changes of this nature to any other planning approvals which include this condition."

Bovis was criticised by Cheshire East councillors in November 2017 for not going ahead with agreed plans to install electric vehicle charging points on the same housing estate.

Members of the southern planning committee at the time said the company should be 'named and shamed' when it found a legal loophole to duck out of a condition to provide the charging points because the planning inspector hadn't imposed it at the outline stage of the application.

The application for the flats, 21/6364N, is scheduled to be considered by the southern planning committee on May 25, according to the council's website.