A Burntwood councillor has told developers the town cannot take more housing without increased healthcare provision.
London and Cambridge Properties has unveiled plans to create 150 new homes on Milestone Way.
It follows a previous development which has seen more than 350 properties in the process of being constructed.
But Labour Councillor Sue Woodward said the town’s infrastructure was at risk of buckling under the increased pressure.
“We simply can’t have more houses without more services,” she said. “Current surgeries are bursting at the seams and the Greenwood House provision – which local Conservatives promised ‘within the next few months’ at least five years ago – seems to be meeting with delay after delay.
“It’s been well-documented over many years that Burntwood needs better and more primary care facilities,” she said. “We were promised a primary care centre when Hammerwich Hopsital closed, but promises have been broken.
“Last year, after at least ten years of discussions and planning, the Government pulled the plug on a new health centre at the Burntwood Leisure Centre site. Now the future is uncertain for the health and wellbeing centre there.”
Cllr Alan White, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for health, warned that the pressure on healthcare budgets meant that a replacement for the health and wellbeing site was unlikely.
He told a meeting of Lichfield District Council earlier this year: “The deficit across Staffordshire is gigantic and there is not enough money coming in to meet the needs across the whole county.
“I don’t dispute the need for a new health centre, but the money is not there.
“I am regularly having conversations with NHS England about Burntwood and have reminded them about their obligations to the people of the town.”
