Will Cranleigh and the eastern villages soon be awash with nursing home beds?
At a time when older people are finding alternative ways of being cared for due to the massive death toll in Nursing Homes due to the Coronavirus – care operators in Cranleigh are seeking more beds.
Waverley Planners recently granted consent to the long-established Knowle Park Nursing Home- a medium- sized operator in the elderly nursing sector- The Caring Homes Healthcare Group.
Officers granted permission for 23 additional bedrooms and a new day lounge/orangery saying it would make an important contribution towards meeting the local need.
The home is based in Knowle Lane in a large former manor house which was converted many years ago to provide accommodation for up to 46 elderly people (41 bedrooms including five double rooms) including those with physical needs and dementia.
There was some concern from nearby residents to the large increase in the size of the home – almost one third – mainly due to the extra traffic which would be generated into the site from Knowle Lane. However neighbours generally supported an increase in the home’s capacity.
** Soon Waverley Planners and Government Inspectors will be faced with yet more schemes in the same country lane for more care home beds.
The newly named Cranleigh Village HEALTH Trust has warned village leaders it intends to lodge a planning application for 64 private care home beds and 16 community beds and a block of one and two-bedroom flats on nearby land, behind Wiskar Drive in Knowle Lane
In tandem -it also intends to Appeal to the Government against the refusal of Waverley Planners in 2019 to allow it to build 80-bed Care Home for HC-ONE together with 20 Community Beds.
However, when the Trust announced its intention to re-apply and appeal – it made no mention of the Care Home Operator. Has the Trust had second thoughts who it wants to get into bed with?
HC-ONE is Britain’s largest Care Home chain was recently threatened with closure of one of its homes for being ‘unsafe.’ In May more than 700 of its staff and residents had died after confirmed or suspected cases of the Coronavirus in ints 300 care homes.
The operator also raised the alarm last month of its ability to carry on carrying its huge debt burden.
*** Last night at an Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting village leaders agreed it would follow the mandate it received from the people of Cranleigh last September and seek the return of the parish land which formed part of a land swap with The Cranleigh Village Health Trust – which was originally intended for a new community hospital.
Post to follow…
A Cranleigh Charity has now unveiled its new development plans to village leaders…
Cranleigh Village Hospital Campaign Group will be fighting to stop this planning and get our land returned to the parish. We would also like to see the CVHT donate the remaining money to Cranleigh Village Hospital League Of Friends.
Statement from the committee.
Cranleigh Village Hospital Campaign Group
This group is run in conjunction with “Cranleigh Village Hospital We Want Answers” and is for the campaign to re-open the minor injury unit and to campaign against a private care home being built in Knowle Lane.
Nearly £1.8m was raised by the public in the belief it was to be used for the purpose of building a new fully functioning hospital including a minor injury clinic and the health centre.
Plans were granted for this but was left to lapse when the GP’s withdrew from the deal when the CVHT expected them to fund their part of the venture with their own money.
The hospital was going to be built on The Paddock Field which once belonged to the Parish Council.
The Parish Council at the time (2005) sold the the Paddock Field for the sum of £1 to the CVHT. A private landowner who was also a trustee of the charity donated a piece of land known as the Bruce McKenzie Field to the Parish Council but kept a ransom strip around it meaning there is not full access rights to the land.
The Paddock Field, now owned by the CVHT was last valued at £2.4m.
There was not a public consultation in regard to the land swap even though the Paddock Field belonged to the people of the Parish.
There was a covenant placed on the land that gave the Parish Council the right to take possession of the Paddock Field if the hospital or something that was beneficial to the community was not built within 5 years. For some reason the Parish Council never acted upon this.
Up until 2019 the CVHT were still using the word “hospital” in the title of their charity, knowing full well that they were never going to build a new hospital.
We as a campaign group found this to be misleading as the public were still donating money thinking the hospital was still a possibility.
Although the CVHT accounts are readily available online, they have only just started to be a bit more forthcoming with what the money raised had been spent on.
The CVHT have always said that their aim was to bring back community beds to Cranleigh. As time went on and the money dwindled they changed from their original plan of a new hospital to a commercial venture with care home provider HC-ONE who are massively in debt.
There is only a 5 year deal regarding the funding from the NHS and Surrey County Council for the community beds. If this funding is not renewed there is a chance that the community beds could be rented out privately back to the care home.
The aim of The Cranleigh Village Hospital Campaign Group is simple, we want the private care home planning stopped, the Paddock Field land returned to the Parish and the remaining CVHT money given to the Cranleigh Village Hospital League Of Friends.
We would also like to see a minor injury clinic and some community beds for the local community reinstated in Cranleigh Village Hospital.
Thank you.
The Cranleigh Village Hospital Campaign Group Committee.
Thank you Andy on behalf of the Campaign Group for spelling out the facts behind this sad debacle and setting out your aims.
Several followers have been in touch on our private e-mail address at contact@waverleyweb.com and on the public post asking how you intend to influence the latest decision by the Trust to appeal the original decision and seek consent for another planning application in tandem. Waverley Planners will have the appeal threat hanging over their heads this time!
The public are asking – what they can do?