Eye-catching proposals to build the county’s first medical school have been given the green light.

Canterbury City Council planning officers approved the application for the three-storey building in Park Wood Road this week.

It is hoped the venture involving the University of Kent and Christ Church University will help to solve the region’s issues with recruiting and retaining hospital staff.

Planned for completion in August 2020, it will initially accommodate 150 students before increasing to 300.

The project, which is called the Kent and Medway Medical School, will see a 2,366 sq m building boasting a 150-seat lecture theatre and a number of seminar rooms erected on the Canterbury plot.

Before the plans were submitted to the city council in December, a number of the county’s MPs, councillors and NHS chief executives voiced their support for the scheme.

Documents produced by the project’s agent Savills said: “The universities’ ambition is to develop a school that will become a beacon for first-class medical education and research and the first choice for those aspiring to achieve excellence in person-centred medical care in the UK.

“The school will enable, influence and drive changes within the clinical workforce to deliver high quality healthcare and will also be an essential part of the solution for recruiting and retaining medical professionals in Kent.”

Specialist practical teaching facilities will be accommodated at the Christ Church campus in a new science and engineering complex, which is under construction.