20 tests for 70 bed Newport care home

A 70-bed care home can be added to a big new development in Newport as long as 20 conditions are met, planners have decided.

Space has been found for the specialist dementia care units at a site that is already being developed for a retirement village on land off Palisade Close.

Planners have imposed 20 conditions that care company Zephyr X will have to pass, including that there is enough staff parking to prevent an overflow onto nearby streets.

There is also a condition to make sure that the site does not flood even if there is a large rainfall event made worse by climate change.

Telford & Wrekin Council planners have decided that apart from some technical issues with the planning history of the site “on balance, the proposal is largely acceptable when assessed against local and national planning policy and where conflict had been identified, material considerations are considered to be relevant in the determination of the application.”

Agent Westbourne Planning Ltd, of New Oxford Street, London, had told planners that the scheme will be a “high quality 70 bed dementia care home.”

It adds: “The proposed care home will not only provide the additional accommodation required to meet the current local need, but will also provide significant local employment, within the Newport area.”

The agents say that the care home will offer a hairdressing salon, cinema, various lounges and training facilities all of which are intended to “improve the quality of life for the residents of the home.

Care company Zephyr has already developed, and now operate, The Maples, a care home in Telford.

The agents wrote: “Working closely with Untold Living, the care village developer, Zephyr intends to bring forward its offer as part of the wider care village here, to better meet local needs, with a more significant demand for this higher care accommodation than extra care living, and enabling this care village to deliver a continuum of care within a single community.”

The agents say a ‘substantial benefit’ will be that current occupants of social and affordable housing will be able to move to the care home, releasing housing to people on waiting lists.

The proposal can also “reduce pressure on NHS beds by increasing the number of step-down facilities in the local area.”