A group of Hampshire MPs have called on the government to ‘call in’ plans for new warehouses over plans in could put a new hospital “at risk”.

Under current plans, four warehouses, including one understood to be used by Amazon, will be built at a site near junction seven of the M3 motorway. A new hospital will also be built at the site, but the MPs have raised concerns that it may be jeopardised by the warehouse plans, which do not take a hospital into account.

North Hampshire MP Kit Malthouse was among five representatives from across the county who have signed a letter to the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, asking him to have the plans inspected by a public enquiry and decided on at a national level.

He said: “I made an election pledge to secure a new hospital for local people and plans are progressing well. Hampshire Hospitals Trust is working on the design and planning process, which is complex and takes time to get right. We must give them the space to do this work and not let other prospective applications get in the way.

“Junction seven on the M3 is the preferred site for the hospital – the proposed new warehouses will take up much needed road capacity and put the hospital at risk. We can’t let this happen.”

A represenative of Newlands, the firm behind the applications, denied the warehouses would jeopardise any plans for the hospital.

In England, the Housing Secretary has the power to ‘call in’ applications. They then decide on the outcome of the application, rather than a local authority, following a planning inspector holding an enquiry into the plans.

Currently, the plans for the M3 warehouse complex include four distribution warehouses to be built on farmland around junction seven, with proposals for new housing and a health campus. The MPs say that these plans are set to be considered in an extraordinary planning meeting later this month, and want the government to act before permission is granted.

In a letter to the housing secretary, they said the warehouse plans would “adversely impact the viability of the proposed hospital site” and would increase costs for building a new hospital, particularly if it was forced to rebuild Basingstoke hospital on its current site.

They criticised the plans for the warehouse, saying they had “significant problems”.

The MPs said: “The warehouse application is speculative and of very poor design for a rural area, and would be a dreadful gateway to Basingstoke town from the south.”

They called on the Housing Secretary to consider plans for the warehouse in the context of a new hospital at the site, so that when the hospital’s application is submitted in late 2021, it is not jeopardised by the existing permissions, particularly concerns over congestion on the A30.

The letter continued: “To consider this warehouse application in isolation would mean its impact on that crucial national infrastructure project would be unknown; and that economic benefit from the four warehouse distribution centres needs to be carefully weighed against the benefit of essential healthcare infrastructure required to serve the people of North and Mid Hampshire”.

Plans for the development were first revealed by the Gazette in June, and have attracted controversy from politicians and residents alike. Last month, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s design team said the plans would “harm views” for motorists.