CONTENTIOUS housing plans that will shape the future of Malvern will be up for debate one more time on Monday.

And Malvern Hills DIstrict Council (MHDC) leader David Hughes will also be fighting for his own future as looks to survive a motion of “no confidence” put forward by opposition councillors.

The meeting gets underway at the Bank House, in Bransford, at 7.30pm and, based on previous debates on the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP), it could be a long night.

The Gazette will be reporting live on this website from the meeting so you will be the first to know what happens wherever you are.

Despite MHDC throwing out the SWDP during a heated meeting last month, Coun Hughes has asked his members to vote again on the housing blueprint.

He claims some councillors “did not fully realise the implications” of how they voted last time around.

But Coun Clive Smith, one of the authors of the motion calling for Coun Hughes to be removed, said his comments showed he was “totally divorced from reality”.

A U-turn on last month’s decision would steer the SWDP - and its proposals for 700 homes at Newland on the edge of Malvern - back on track.

But if councillors again fail to support it, Malvern Hills will likely be cut adrift by SWDP partners Worcester City and Wychavon Councils and left to develop its own local plan.