Decision due on Midhurst's Grange site following months of 'frustration'

A meeting of the South Downs National Park planning committee on October 13 will see plans for a care home on the agenda. Plans to build a 62-home care home were withdrawn in 2021 before being submitted again earlier this year.

The original site was bulldozed in 2014 and has been subject to a number of plans since. Three attempts by the district council to sell the site to a supermarket chain failed and operators pulled the plug on a scheme hoping to turn the site into a swimming centre.

Plans to build a care home at the site have been almost universally unpopular with readers of this newspaper, the town council and the Midhurst Society sharing their opinions on previous applications.

Now the latest plans are up before the SDNP planning committee to discuss the application.

The developer hopes to build the care home over four floors.

In addressing the need for another care home in the town, the applicant said: “It is clear from official statistics that there is a local demand which will increase significantly up to 2031 and beyond, driven by the demographic profile of the ageing population reflecting the “Baby Boomers”, born in the period of 1946-64 and now approaching the need for care. Fresh Census statistics will shortly be introduced into analysis, expected to indicate even more demand.

"Currently there is a shortage of provision of beds in the Midhurst catchment area and existing stock is quite old. In part it will fail the expectations of patients and their families in terms of room sizes, en-suite facilities and activity spaces particularly as this later generation has wider interests.

“There is a need for more beds to provide local care to the community. It is important for patients to have the support of family and friends, who must be able to easily access the home.”

You can find out more about attending the event at 10am at South Downs Centre Hall, Midhurst, GU29 9DH by visiting: www.southdowns.gov.uk/meeting/planning-committee-13-october-2022/