HC One's Kingswood care home approved

Stroud District Council’s planning committee narrowly disagreed with the suggestion of planning officer John Chaplin that the development off Wotton Road was unsuitable.

Concerned that building on the site put forward by HC One, which is outside of the village’s settlement boundary and in breach of the village neighbourhood development plan and district local plan, would set a precedent, four committee members voted against approving the application at last Tuesday’s meeting.

However, five councillors supported it saying they felt it would help the district meet a target of 950 new care home beds being built over the next 13 years.

Speaking before the decision was made, HC One project manager Gordon Asher said: “Over 84 per cent of people surveyed supported the scheme.

“The need for care homes in Stroud is desperate. Only 107 new beds have been built in the last 12 years and the local plan requires 950 beds to be delivered in the next 13 years.

“There are no brownfield sites suitable for the development of a new home.

“We cannot compete with housebuilders in the purchasing of land, there are no suitable sites identified in the local plan for the development of care facilities.”

The existing Pennwood Lodge care home has 60 beds and the new centre would provide 80.

Mr Asher said that, if the application was approved, once the new building was completed, residents of the current home would be transferred to the new one so that work could be carried out to convert it into 32 apartments for residents with “less acute” problems.

Supporting the application, Cllr Chris Brine said: “We are going to give older people an opportunity to live somewhere where they can get support which is also freeing up houses they are currently living in which puts those back into the mix.”

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