Long-awaited plans for a “health hub” and education centre at Britain’s newest garden city have been given the green light.

The project at the Whitecliffe development in Ebbsfleet will provide space for a range of health facilities, as well as a lifelong learning centre operated by Kent County Council.

This will also include a new “Family Hub” delivering a range of services to children and young people, adult education and a library, together with accommodation for Kent Police.

For decades families in the area have been calling for facilities first “promised” to them more than a decade ago, but have now finally been given some good news.

The state-of-the-art building will provide space for a range of health services.

The ground floor will also accommodate a café, 200-person capacity hall, which will serve as a multi-faith space, with the upper floors providing a multipurpose studio, co-working space and rooftop terrace.

A design statement about the project, which was submitted earlier this year, said: “The Hub will be a distinctive centrepiece for Alkerden Market Centre, responding to the existing topography and adopting an appearance inspired by the dramatic landscapes that surround the site shaped by human activity and industry over hundreds of years.

“It will be outward looking by maximising active uses at ground floor and opportunities for natural surveillance with overlooking windows.to support the creation of safe and welcoming streets and spaces.

“The Hub will provide a fully accessible and inclusive environment, including level access to all building entrances, minimising internal level changes at ground floor, provision of wheelchair accessible toilets and lifts providing access to all upper floors.”

The proposals have been developed through engagement and collaboration with Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board and Ebbsfleet Garden City Trust who are intended to be the long-term custodians of the building.

Earlier this year, some concerns were raised about the temperature in the buildings after an “overheating assessment” claimed “even under current weather conditions, it is likely that the rooms will overheat in the summer months”.

A letter from the NHS Kent and Medway, which is supportive of the plans, said: “Given that we know temperatures are due to increase over the next decade and beyond, we need to ensure the building is going to be able to cope with these higher temperatures.”

But Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, the planning arm for the garden city project, has now approved plans for the development of the “Hub”.

Ebbsfleet is one of the UK’s largest and fastest regeneration schemes with proposals to deliver up to 15,000 homes, between Dartford and Gravesend, by 2035.

The quarry development sites are sandwiched between the River Thames and the north Kent green belt “where London meets the Garden of England” on the High Speed 1 train line.

The largest of them, in Whitecliffe, sits alongside separate proposals for a new major urban park which was consulted on last year and a huge education campus, catering for more than 2,200 secondary and primary school pupils.

Previously, project architect Andrew Enerva, from HTA Design, explained the ideas that have been incorporated into the plans for The Hub include a co-working space and a lifelong learning centre.

He explained that the ground floor will have a café, library and multi-purpose hall, with access to the health care facility next door.

On the first floor there will be a lifelong learning centre to offer support to parents and carers.

The third floor will feature adult education and social care.

And on the top floor there will be a co-working space where people working from home can set themselves up for the day, or start-up companies can hire a table on a more permanent basis.

Construction is expected to begin on the site of Britain’s newest garden city in 2025, with facilities open to the public in 2027.