Proposals for a 60-bed care home at Poorhole Lane at Westwood will be brought back to Thanet council planning committee members this week with an officer recommendation to approve subject to the safeguarding conditions.
The application from Rooksmead Residential to build a part two and part three storey care home at the Westwood Acres site did not receive backing from councillors when it was discussed last month.
Instead they agreed that officers would come back to the committee with potential reasons for refusal.
Rooksmead Residential want to build in the area previously used as a commercial facility storing machinery and site offices.
Amended plans have reduced rooms from 66 to 60, lowering the height of the building nearest to the 17th Century The Cottage which was retained alongside the Grade II listed main house of Westwood Lodge, built in 1864, and the gate piers when development of 153 modular homes took place.
Access is shown opposite The Cottage, on Forest Drive, with a planting zone either side.
However, the outline application was called in to committee by Cllr Mike Garner due to concerns about the impacts on local biodiversity, trees and roads.
He highlighted how a reserved matters application for the 153 home development by the site had included a woodland management plan which indicated the area was expected to be replanted with trees, hedgerow and high quality grassland for birds and insects.
At the meeting in February he said: “If we agree this outline proposal this is a further loss of woodland and that goes significantly, for me, against the grain.”
Other concerns raised at that meeting included the lack of a road crossing, concerns raised by Kent Police and possible impact on the heritage buildings Westwood Lodge and The Cottage.
In response to the concerns, the agent for the care home proposal submitted a new statement, an updated Arboricultural Impact Assessment and a new version of the Woodland Management Plan for the wider site, specifically for the area of the Westwood Lodge site where development is proposed.
The report to councillors meeting on Wednesday (March 19) looks at concerns raised and whether they are valid reasons to refuse the application.
These are:
Loss of trees
The report says the application must demonstrate that the 60 bed care home can be accommodated on the site without resulting in harm to protected trees or the loss of trees that contribute to the quality and character of the area.
The updated Arboricultural Impact Assessment (AIA) states that none of the trees protected by Tree Preservation Orders will be affected by the proposed works.
The developer says two trees are to be felled which are not covered by the TPO.
There would also be removal of part of a group of trees covering a “minor part of the 1988 TPO area” with the developer saying “only small trees not protected would be removed in a limited area.”
Planning officers say there is not a blanket protection for all trees and: “the trees to be removed (are) not contributing to the character of the area in the view of officers. Even if considered to contribute by members, given the benefits of the proposal, in the opinion of officers the harm from the loss would result in limited environmental harm, outweighed by the benefits of the proposal.
“Therefore it would be unreasonable for members to refuse the application on the loss of trees from the evidence considered by officers.”
Officers say that there are conditions attached to any agreement which “are sufficient in ensuring the protection of all retained trees during construction, with any future reserved matters application required to include details of new trees to be planted.”
Impact on the previously approved woodland management plan
At the February meeting it was highlighted that the outline planning application for the wider site – which included the now built 153 homes- proposed 150 trees would be removed across the whole site, with the planting of 450 new trees.
A Woodland management and biodiversity plan (2021) said the land in the current care home application with woodland would be thinned to remove sycamore and non-native species, with native tree planting proposed. However, the report says there was no indication of planting to occur on the hardstanding area in the site.
An updated woodland plan now says there would be a reduction in sycamore trees by 85% with replacement with native species and increased planting of trees and scrubs to increase biodiversity and bird habitats.
There would be thinning of the woodland by 30% in one year (sycamores and non-native species), use of timber for hibernacula and removal of ivy, with a mixture of different trees species from the identified list planted. Trees would be watered every two weeks in the growing season between March and October for the first two years, with the process repeated after 5 years. Grassland for the care home would encourage wildlife, whilst the proposed bat, bird and hedgehog boxes would provide the same level of woodland and biodiversity enhancement provided by the previous plan.
Thanet planning officers say this would mean “there is no cogent reason for refusal.”
Heritage and highways
Officers say refusal could be based on cause harm to the heritage asset (The Cottage and Westwood Lodge), due to the scale of development and visual relationship between the two buildings.
Officers say concerns about crossing the road at Poorhole Lane is also not a ‘cogent reason for refusal’ because there is a dropped kerb crossing point with tactile paving to a ‘splitter’ traffic island on the roundabout arm on Poorhole Lane and the developer has already made a contribution to mitigate traffic, pedestrian and cycle impact of £306,000 towards a new signalised pedestrian crossing on Star Lane which is now operational.
Rooksmead Residential say the care home would serve “a considerable need” in the area and create 62 direct jobs on site. They said services would include dementia, end of life, nursing and residential care on a ‘brownfield’ site previously used for commercial structures within the woodland area.
Planning officers are recommending that councillors approve the application subject to a series of conditions.
they list a pair of poxy gate piers that have been rebuilt anyway over the years , and yet they smoother a beautiful area of woodland with houses? those woods and pastures were full of wildlife of all types , no doubt this will get passed as the size of the brown envelope increases .
these developers will say anything to get planning but once got it whos going to stop trees being felled and other destruction I cannot believe how much wildlife has been lost just in that area, where do the affected wildlife go as there are very few trees left in the area, I know there are a proportion of elderley people in this area but we are not all looking at care homes and who can afford to go into them anyway.One has been built next to the hospital one in Westwood as well as the existing ones in Thanet so do we reaally need another one
According to Angela Rayner houses are more important than wildlife, so no doubt it will go through this time round. I don’t believe for one instance they will plant the trees they promise just like in a lot of developments