Doctors already need more than £3million to cope with natural population increase in the Maldon district, claims the NHS.

Maldon District Council estimates 10,632 people will move to the area if 4,430 homes included in its Local Development Plan are built.

NHS Property Services Ltd and NHS England say the eight main GP practices are already looking after 8,365 more patients than they can comfortably cope with, and need £3,212,057 to bring them up to standard to manage natural population growth.

Lawson Planning Partnership, commenting on the pre-submission LDP for the NHS, said: "The population arising from the proposed growth set out in the draft LDP would require provision for an additional 6.05 GPs across the district and developer funding of £1,452,000."