Developers who want to build a 2,500-home garden village have been told they will have to cough up more than £10.8 million to pay for health care.

The NHS says it would need the cash to upgrade its services to cope with thousands of new residents who would live in the housing estate dubbed Foxchurch, in Bobbing near Sittingbourne.

Formerly called Bobbing Garden Village, the planned development, near the A249 and A2, would span 488 acres, the size of 305 standard 11-a-side football pitches.

The NHS response was published following Catesby Estates and Appin Land & Development’s amended plans, which were lodged with Swale council at the end of March.

It says it expects more than 6,000 people would live in the new homes and it needs the financial contributions to stop the surge in population having an “unacceptable adverse impact” on its services.

In the breakdown of what it requires, NHS Kent and Medway ICB says it would need more than £3.38 million and 2,500 square metres of land to build a “minimum-sized” two-storey facility.

However, the ICB says the money would still not be enough to fund a fully fitted site.

Despite this, it said the contribution would provide “an element of certainty” and without it a “viable plan cannot be progressed”.

The developers would also be given the option of building the facility to NHS specifications themselves instead of stumping up the cash.

Meanwhile, Medway Foundation NHS Trust, which runs Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, says it will need more than £7.48m to upgrade its services.

These include its emergency department, maternity services, children’s services, healthcare for older persons services, cardiac services, diagnostics and endoscopy.

It would also require an additional 16 inpatient beds.

The payments would have to be made in a maximum of two contributions.

The first would be before the construction starts, while the second is to be decided at a later date.

The NHS says without the money, the plans “cannot be mitigated and there will be an unacceptable adverse impact on existing facilities, access to services and waiting times impacting the existing population”.

The Foxchurch proposals include a healthcare provision but do not set out what form it would take.

Under any planning agreement should the plans be approved, developers would also have to pay towards other infrastructure, such as education, roads and transport, waste and disposal and adult social care.

The level of financial contributions required for those services is yet to be revealed.

The Foxchurch project has been in the works for more than six years, with plans first coming to the surface in 2018.

However, for more than two years there were no updates as the developers amended the scheme after receiving feedback.

New parts of the proposals include a 125-acre country park, the relocation of the three-form primary school and village centre and the addition of a 12-acre sports hub.

However, opposition to the plans is strong, with villagers forming Communities Against Bobbing Expansion (CABE).

One of its members is Cllr Mike Baldock, who also sits on Bobbing Parish Council and Swale council. He has abstained from his role as Swale’s planning committee chairman so he can have his say.

The Swale Independents leader told KentOnline the infrastructure was already “so far behind” for the housing in the Sittingbourne area that the new homes “will add to the strain".

He said: “We have such a shortage in doctors that while they can build a surgery, there’s no guarantee anyone is going to go in it.”