350 homes planned for village

A CONTROVERSIAL scheme for a retirement village of more than 350 homes on the outskirts of Ditchling will be recommended for permission at a special planning meeting of Lewes District Council on Tuesday.

The combined accommodation and care package, one of very few in the country, is proposed at St George's Retreat which is run by the Sisters of Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.

A final decision on the scheme, because it is a departure from existing planning policies, will have to be made by the Secretary of State

But it has already drawn criticism from Lewes Friends of the Earth whose spokesman John Kenward said: 'By any other name, this is a new village for at least 600 people set in the heart of the countryside.

'People living there and their visitors will depend on private cars for virtually all their needs. We are amazed to learn that the council's planners are making no objection to this proposal.

Complicated

'How they can do this without contradicting the council's own approach to where new housing should be built beggars belief.

'With over half of the new homes having two or three bedrooms, is it fair to claim that this is an extension of the nursing and care which the Retreat provides?

'This proposal is nothing but a major housing development in the wrong place.'

The complicated scheme is to extend and convert St George's House to provide 86 retirement flats, land and building to the north to provide 141 retirement flats and eight retirement houses, extension of buildings to provide a 60-bed nursing home and health centre, and a 121 unit residential care home.

The Sisters of Augustine have been providing nursing care at the site since 1866 and currently look after 193 residents. Some 300 jobs are provided there.

Officers will tell Tuesday's meeting that the existing building falls short of modern day healthcare requirements.

'They are, therefore, proposing to use their significant asset, their land, to establish a continuing care retirement community. It is a community which at its centre provides respite, residential and nursing care but at the same time allows independent living while delivering home care to residents should they need it.'

Planning director Lindsay Frost said measures to reduce car use would be put in place, including providing a lot of on-site facilities and running a regular minibus into the towns.

And he added: 'It is a complex and unusual scheme. The council members will need to weigh up health and employment benefits against environmental impact.'