Decision due on care home next to A27 at Stone Cross

Barchester Healthcare wants to build the 70-bed facility near the garden centre north of Dittons Road and east of Golden Jubilee Way.

The site would include a café, family rooms, a hairdresser, dining facilities and a cinema room as well as several informal lounges offering spaces for social events, crafts and group activities.

The care home would accommodate up to 30 staff, working in three-shift patterns.

An application is due to be discussed by Wealden District Council’s planning committee south next Thursday (November 5).

Westham Parish Council has objected, arguing this is ‘totally the wrong place for a care home’ as residents would be ‘marooned without access to any local facilities’.

Their representation reads: “The nearest amenities are across a major dual carriageway with no crossing point. The residents and staff will be totally reliant on car transport to reach the home. There is a bus service, but it is insufficient in the evenings to encourage staff to use it.”

In response, council officers note care home residents would largely be confined to the building and grounds although trips out are possible, while staff and visitors have ‘good alternatives’ to the private care to access the site.

Only one third party letter was received by the council and this was in support.

In favour of the scheme was the contribution of housing towards meeting undersupply in Wealden, the release of other homes to the supply chain and the additional employment.

However officers also noted the loss of an agricultural field to development in the coastal levels landscape weighed against it.

On balance they are recommending approval subject to conditions.