People living behind South- mead Hospital believe their homes will be overshadowed by new buildings that have been planned close to their homes.

The proposed main building will back onto Dorian Way, which is just a few metres away from the gardens of five houses in Dorian Close.

Residents believe the three- to five- storey buildings will block sunlight from their gardens and be intrusive.

They have been shown light plans by the developers and are angry they were not consulted about the design sooner. The worst affected houses are likely to be in Dorian Close, although there is likely to be some impact on homes in the Dorian Road end of Tilling Road.

Fiona Deas, 54, said the light at her home was one of the reasons why she and her husband Alistair chose to move there two years ago.

But plans for the new hospital will leave her garden in almost total shadow. A tall chimney can already be seen from her garden, but the new building is likely to block all of her view.

Mrs Deas said: "We actually bought the house for the light and it was not until we saw the plans that we realised it would be gone.

"When we first heard the new hospital was going to be here we thought it would be great; we don't have a complaint about the hospital.

"No one saw anything in the original plans that alerted us to this, it all started further down the road. We are really quite amenable to lots of things with the hospital.

"It says in the planning statement that we are already living by a hospital, but it's a car park now, not an A&E department open 24/7.

"I know people say about not in my back yard – but this really is going to be in our back gardens."

A couple who have lived on the row of houses that back onto the proposed site of the main building for 18 years, but asked not to be named, can already see single- storey hospital buildings from their garden and want the new building to be moved further back from the edge of the hospital site.

One said: "We were quite excited by the whole idea of the new hospital and thought it would be nice for Bristol, but about a month or so ago we saw the plans and realised it was right by our back garden.

"My wife came back from the meeting in tears. She suffers from SAD (seasonal affective disorder, which is brought on by lack of natural light in winter) and could not bear the thought of the loss of light.

"I went along to the next meeting and asked them about moving the building back, but they were not going to.

"We have seen diagrams of how the buildings will affect the light and in the summer we will have nothing but a small triangle of light by 6pm, whereas at the moment we get the sun until 9pm at night in the summer. Even by 3pm it will have most of the garden in shadow.

"It seems to be that because they are only affecting a handful of people in a street, they don't seem to care."

Planning documents for the redevelopment have acknowledged the close proximity of the proposed buildings to their back gardens.

Suzanne Osborne, 60, has lived in Dorian Close with her husband Peter for 30 years and has seen the mental health high dependency unit built close to her own back garden.

She said: "It's the sheer size of it really. The people suffering more are those living at the bottom of the close, it is going to overshadow the gardens.

"I am also concerned about the traffic. It is a nightmare now trying to pull out onto the main road so I can't imagine what it will be like with a bigger hospital. I think it is just too much in one area, especially with the 300 homes they are building where the prefabs were.

"They should have built the hospital at Frenchay."

Josie Jackson has lived in the close for seven years.

She said: "We are concerned that in the plans the hospital looks quite close to the houses. It does not affect us as much as the neighbours across the road.

"In our old age being close to a hospital it will be nice and I don't disagree that the hospital should be built there and that there should be a new hospital, but I am slightly concerned that the plans will bring all the ambulances down Dorian Road.

"There is also the building work going on behind us where 100 prefabs are being turned into 300 dwellings and to have the road as the main entrance to A&E is a concern, especially as it is a bit of a blind corner."

In the supporting statement which has been submitted with the planning application there is a section referring to the different impacts the building will have on neighbours.

It states that trees will be planted to screen the views as much as possible.

NBT deputy director of projects Tricia Down said: "We fully recognise that there are going to be a small number of neighbours who will find it difficult to have a hospital of this size close to their homes. It is a pity that we have not been able to come up with a solution that does work 100 per cent for every person but this will be a good thing for the local community. It is a fantastic resource, a state-of-the-art hospital for them, their loved ones and children... One of the problems is that the existing hospital needs to keep running throughout the building so the available land is a little closer to some of the houses."

Ms Down said Carillion and the trust would be meeting with residents living near the hospital regularly to keep them informed.