New care home planned for Chard (From This is The West Country)

New care home planned for Chard

5:00pm Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News

A 65-BEDROOM care home has been included in proposals for a housing development on the outskirts of Chard.

Knightstone Housing Association and Yeovil-based Boon Brown architects held a public exhibition to show off the project planned for land off Thorndun Park Drive and Furnham Road at the Guildhall on Monday evening.

Boon Brown planning consultant Matt Frost told the News a formal planning application could be submitted to South Somerset District Council ‘within weeks rather than months’.

The affordable housing scheme will include properties ranging from one to four bedrooms.

Mr Frost said a ‘big need’ existed for affordable housing and care provision in the Chard area and the proposals had come about after talks with the local authorities.

More than 200 letters were distributed to people who live in the earmarked area to tell them about the exhibition but representatives of the companies said they had only had a few visitors half way through the 3½-hour event.

More interest is likely when a public inquiry is held at the Guildhall on Tuesday, October 16, from 10am, into a proposed 61-home development on land between Mitchell Gardens, Snowdon Farm and Shepherds Lane in Chard.

The district council threw out Redrow Homes’ planning application in April after a wave of opposition but the developers have appealed against the decision.

A planning inspector will now take an in-depth look at the proposals at the inquiry and people will have the chance to speak there.

The council opposed the scheme principally because the application was on a green field site outside development limits and not in compliance with Chard’s regeneration scheme.

Redrow, like Knighstone, has argued that Chard needs more affordable housing, which its scheme would provide.