New Patcham care home garners opposition before plans are even submitted
Opposition to a new care home in Patcham has started weeks before a planning application has even been submitted – but the developers say the home is badly needed.
A public meeting held last week to protest the plans had to be relocated to All Saints’ Church at short notice after 150 people turned up to hear councillors and officers speak about McCarthy and Stone’s plans for a 44 flat care home in Old London Road.
The proposals involve knocking down five family homes opposite Patcham House School to build a home which residents say is too large, ugly and will lead to increased traffic and parking pressure.
But the developers argue that Brighton and Hove needs hundreds more three times as many care homes as it currently has, and building more will free up more family homes in other parts of the city.
Ward councillor Geoffrey Theobald, who spoke at the meeting, said: “I couldn’t think of a more inappropriate place to build a large care home such as the one that McCarthy and Stone is proposing.
“Quite apart from the loss of much-needed family homes, this large building would be completely out of character with the Conservation Area. I shudder to think of the problems that would be caused by all the extra traffic it would generate.
“We just need to look at what has happened at the nearby Maycroft Manor care home on Carden Avenue to get some idea. In addition, as many residents pointed out last night, this part of Patcham is already highly prone to flooding and so is entirely unsuited to a large new building housing extremely vulnerable older people.
“I agree with the 150 residents who turned out for last week’s public meeting – McCarthy and Stone must abandon these ill-thought out plans and find a more suitable location.”
The meeting was organised by campaign group Protect Patcham, which already has a website up and running to protest the plans, which were the subject of a public consultation held by the developers last month.
A spokesman for McCarthy and Stone pointed to the council’s extra care strategy, which acknowledges the need for extra care housing to cater for the 14,000 or so people aged 80+ in Brighton and Hove.
He added: “Furthermore, data from the Housing and Learning Improvement Network shows that there are only 263 units of this type available across the whole of Brighton and Hove. The same data estimates that the area requires 819 units to cater for the current market.
“It is important that a community needs to meet the housing needs of all its residents. This development would provide local older people the opportunity to downsize while still remaining in the area, which will free up family homes for the younger generation.”
“Our consultation with the community is an on-going process and we have already made amendments to these proposals following initial meetings by reconfiguring the building slightly, resulting in the loss of two apartments.
For more information about the proposals, visit www.mccarthyandstone-consultation.co.uk/patcham
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Of course McCarthy and Stone are being purely philanthropic with their proposal. Buy out 5 houses, build 44 flats to be sold between £320K and £400K each, plus a hefty weekly service charge. This is the second or third time they’ve tried to get this development in the same place. Nil, or minimal, parking for staff is being provided and the residents will have to pay extra if they want a parking place. The Old London Road is already parked out as an unofficial park and ride as well as for activities at the Memorial Hall, School, Scout Hut and shops.
Currently there are large mature gardens to absorb some of the rainfall but some 75% of this area will be built over. Perhaps the flooding could be controlled by use of rain gardens as suggested for Portslade in another acticle.
Yes, people are living longer and we need housing for the elderly, but what’s important is WHERE it goes. Putting it on a site which floods is not a good idea. It was only 2 years ago that one of the houses on the proposed site had a hose out to the road pumping out flood water. In the floods of 2000, residents in the road were asked not use their toilets due to the sewers overflowing. Also how will the residents, who McCarthy and Stone describe as frail, get to the village. There’s no pavement on that side of the Old London Road. Are they going to put in a crossing? And have you seen the size of the building – it’s enormous and totally out of character.
McCarthy and Stone plan to build this on a raised concrete block to prevent flooding to their property, water does not go away it moves somewhere else which I suggest will be to the remaining property’s nearby which until now have not flooded.
Careful monitoring of water levels has been done over the years, if the works alter water flow and flood houses, which have not to date flooded, would leave either the council or Mc Carthy and Stone responsible for the damage.
There has been two previous applications from same company which were unanimously rejected together with their appeals, nothing has changed since then. We don’t need more residential care homes in Patcham as there are enough already and this project would destroy a very well established residential area and its trees and greenery and cause more traffic chaos and parking and flood issues on top of what is already there ! McCarthy and Stone are in it only for the money and not the good of the community no matter how they make it look.
It is a problem that needs solving as there is a shortage of proper home care and care facilities in the area.
It’s definitely a situation which needs to be addressed in care homes. Assisted living quarters need to be improved and increased. Care homes need the highest quality of walk in baths and accessible features throughout their living space.