Liss nursing home can be replaced with bigger care home

The application from Barchester Healthcare was given the nod by planning officers.

As such, the 44-bedroom Wenham Holt Nursing Home, in London Road, Hill Brow, will make way for a purpose-built 64-bedroom care home with facilities including a cinema and activity room.

The applicant said it was not viable to renovate the current three-storey Victorian building as it had ‘reached the end of its useful life’.

A planning report published alongside the decision to approve the application said: “The proposed development would provide residential accommodation for elderly people, for which there is a large and growing need in the National Park.”

The application included drainage work – and officers recognised that conditions within the site were ‘difficult’.

Consulting with Hampshire County Council – the Lead Local Flood Authority – the applicant came up with measures for dealing with surface water.

They included the use of permeable surfacing, especially beneath the car park, with a series of small basins and swales designed to capture run-off.

A pumping station will also be built to pump foul drainage to the nearest sewer on London Road.

The report added: “Overall, the planning balance is in favour of the development, and officers are satisfied that the proposed development should be approved as it would not conflict with policies within the South Downs Local Plan, Liss Neighbourhood Development Plan or the Rogate and Rake Neighbourhood Development Plan.”

To view the application, log on to planningpublicaccess.southdowns.gov.uk and search for 23/03704/FUL.