DURHAM City Council is being urged to throw out plans to build a hotel, pub and housing which could prevent the city's under-sized hospital from expanding.

The privately financed University Hospital of North Durham is under pressure because it was built with fewer beds than the old Dryburn Hospital it replaced.

Since it opened last year, operations have regularly had to be cancelled. Health bosses have had to merge the hospital with others in the county in an attempt to increase capacity.

But protestors claim any significant expansion will be impossible if new plans to build the leisure facilities and homes get the go-ahead.

The City of Durham Trust wants the city council to reject planning applications to build on land next to the £97m hospital. The land was sold to Consort Healthcare as part of the controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal to build the new hospital.

The trust has written to the city council urging that until the hospital's medium or long-term plans are known, 'the remaining land, arbitrarily deemed surplus to requirements, should not be developed by pre-emptive uses.'

While the agreement to dispose of the land was made at least five years ago, as recently as last year management at the former North Durham NHS Trust assured the council that it had enough land to meet its needs for the forseeable future.

In his letter to the council, Dr Douglas Pocock, City of Durham Trust secretary , said that this optimism had proved to be ill-founded, but David Woodhead, chief officer with North Durham Community Health Council, said he understood the land retained by the hospital was adequate for any expansion.

A spokeswoman for Durham City Council confirmed that two planning applications from Consort were being considered.

A spokeswoman for the new County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS trust said: "The land is now owned by Consort. It was sold off five years ago as part of the PFI deal, which was signed by a previous trust."

Marjorie Hooper, spokeswoman for Consort Healthcare, said: "The planning applications are going through the proper public process.

"We therefore cannot comment any further at this time."