Permission has been granted for the construction of a 66-bed care home off Haine Road at the already approved Westwood Village development, which has two phases for 1,450 homes, a school, shops, hotel, pubs and open space.
The care home site is currently an agricultural field. It was initially earmarked 50 ‘specialist housing’ properties such as assisted living but is being replaced by the care home.
Permission for phase one – 900 dwellings, school, shops, hotel, pubs and open space – was granted in 2020.
A reserved matters application for phase two – 449 affordable homes from social housing provider Riverside Group – was granted last year.
The care home applicant is LNT Care Developments with sister company LNT Construction delivering the build. LNT has developed some 235 care homes for the care of older people across the country since 2005. All operational sites are highly rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Planning documents say the home will be spilt into the separate care requirements for general care and dementia care. There will be 24 staff on site at any one time.
A planning officer report says: “Overall it is considered that the erection of a 66 bed care home would be in line with the parameter plans for the outline application which identified the site for 50 plus units of specialist housing.
“The council’s Local Housing Needs Assessment 2021 shows that Thanet has a relatively old age structure in terms of older people, with 24% of the population aged 65 and over in 2019, compared to 18% nationally.
“Thanet is projected to see a notable increase in the older person population, with the number of people aged 65 and over projected to increase by 48% (until 2040), compared to a general population growth of 23%.
“The data identifies a need within Thanet of 1,286 additional care bedspaces. The application is supported by a Needs Assessment for nursing homes which contains a summary of recent planning permissions for nursing homes with a search being done in September 2024.
“This shows that nine planning consents have been approved relating to nursing homes with 441 beds in total being approved, including 191 dementia care beds. This includes all consents including some that have not yet been implemented.
“For the 66 bedroom care home it is expected that approximately 43 dwellings would be vacated and released into the housing market.”
The build will include the creation of a new access road off Haine Road and the provision of 25 parking spaces, including 2 disabled spaces, and 6 electric vehicle charging spaces. A cycle store with 8 spaces is also included.
Thanet council approved the application this week.
Hotels ,shops ,pubs ,schools ,doctors surgeries on the site ,what lies the developers come out with .Has anyone seen anything but houses built there,because I haven’t
Ray, it’s clear that TDC follow what Ashford Borough Council do as reported in KoL recently…An activity centre and a public house/restaurant were among the facilities put forward when the plans were approved by Ashford Borough Council in 2014. However, the development – which sits next to the 85-acre Conningbrook Lakes Country Park – has never seen the addition of such facilities, or any form of public transport, despite work being completed earlier this year.
On agricultural land? Disgraceful. Any protest drowned out by the tearing open of brown envelopes
It will all be concrete soon.
What bus route will serve this development?
Westwood Village….. Are they sure?? More like Westwood Town now….. soon to be Thanet Town Centre if it carries on the way it is.
Many years ago ,TDC stated they wanted Westwood to become the new town city of Thanet,so no surprise there
Thanet agricultural land has been recognised since Roman times as some of the best and most productive in the whole of Europe. Thanet Earth has already destroyed large areas of that land when the glass houses could have been built on unproductive land. Now the government is allowing what the EU started to destroy British agricultural productivity and make us dependent on poorer quality imports from France and Spain. I also agree, from personal experience, that the brown envelope brigade in TDC is still alive and active.
Ducs, have you never ever bought ,cucumbers ,peppers tomatoes from local shops ,chances are they are from planet earth
More and more farmland is being taken, when will it end?
Bad where does the wildlife go kids of today won\’t know any wildlife exists we have enough old people\’s homes now
In a few years ,travel agents will be doing ,trips out for the family to see a 50 sqm of green area in Thanet and charging a fortune to get in
Who’s going to work in the care homes? Reform are planning to send anybody with brown skin back home or Rawanda or any other country they can make up. Unfortunately we have been brainwashed into believing that the reason we’re struggling is their fault and nothing to do with Boris Brexit nonsense pushed by, you’ve got it …Nigel Farage but as I say we’ve become so radicalised by social media from the likes of the American mad man Musk who recently suggested we should fight back or die, you couldn’t make it up!! God help us.