A PROPOSAL for a new £225m hospital in Kent has cleared the latest hurdle.

Tunbridge Wells councillors have given their blessing to the plans for the new PFI Pembury Hospital.

The scheme also includes a Travel Plan limiting the number of public car parking spaces at the site in a bid to encourage patients and staff to use public transport instead.

But councillors threw out controversial conditions, proposed by the Highways Agency, that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust - which is at the centre of the deadly C-diff superbug outbreak at its three hospitals - should pay for the dualling of and improvements to the nearby A21 after hearing the scheme would increase hospital traffic by less than one percent and that the huge costs invovled would eat into cash earmarked for patient care.