A major development at a site once used for Nobel-winning medical research has been backed by council officers.

The scheme would see the disused Atkinson Morley hospital and surrounding buildings converted into 25 houses and 54 flats.

It has been recommended by Merton Council officers despite worries about the impact on the area's wildlife. Councillors are set to vote on the plan today (July 21).

The Atkinson Morley is where Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1979, used the revolutionary brain scanning technique of computed tomography for the first time. Last week officers recommended developer Berkely Homes hands over eight hectares of surrounding green space for public use in return for approval, and that the company upgrades sports pitches and builds a new pavilion on the transferred land.

Their report said another former pitch should be landscaped to become a mini-nature reserve as part of the plans - and calls for a “fully detailed badger impact assessment” and other plans to protect trees and wildlife. It also noted calls by green groups, including Natural England, to make sure animals like bats and lizards were not affected by the development.

The Atkinson Morley in Copse Hill is a four-floor locally-listed 19th century building, and was once one of the world's leading brain surgery hospitals. But it was vacated in 2003 - when its services were transferred to St George's Hospital in Tooting. The other element of the site, the Firs, features two blocks of staff accomodation built in the 1960s.

The new homes would include four-bed townhouses as well as smaller flats and maisonettes. One of the largest houses would have six bedrooms as well as a swimming pool, cinema room and four-car garage.