A charity offering to build a new £7m hospice facility wants it to form part of the biggest housing development Canterbury has seen for decades.

Pentland Properties Ltd hopes to build up to 750 new homes, a primary school, sports pitches and community facilities at Thanington.

Its ‘Thanington Park’ scheme would include a new slip road onto the A2 as well as a park and ride service to whisk residents to and from the city centre.

Last week we reported how confidential talks were being held to relocate the city’s Pilgrims Hospice, currently situated on London Road.

Today we can reveal that the Etchinghill-based Tory Family Foundation charity is offering to fund construction of a brand new hospice building within the Thanington project.

Peter Tory, a trustee of the foundation, is a director of Pentland Properties.

Cate Russell, chief executive of Pilgrims Hospices, said last week: “Pilgrims is 100% committed to providing quality hospice care for people at a site in Canterbury.

“However, our current building at London Road cannot provide levels of service and care that new hospices deliver and to which we aspire.

“In the medium term we will be faced with the need to either extensively refurbish or rebuild.”

The Thanington development has yet to be put before the city council’s planning committee.

It is earmarked for farmland owned by Pentland at the back of the existing Thanington housing estate.

Pentland has teamed up with developer Mark Quinn to design the scheme.

Martin Hart, a spokesman for the consortium, said, “This is an exciting opportunity to address Canterbury’s need for family homes and provide the transport and social infrastructure required for the future.

“The opportunity to provide a new purpose built hospice for the area, with the support of the Tory Family Foundation, is a real bonus enabling Pilgrims Hospices to upgrade its Canterbury based accommodation without any interim disruption to the vital services offered at the London Road site.

“Thanington Park proposals will help secure the long term future for Pilgrims Hospices in Canterbury”.

An exhibition of the Thanington Park proposals will be held at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Old Dover Road on Saturday and Sunday June 13 and 14.