New jobs for Weymouth with care home given the go ahead
It will create around 60 new positions
A 66-room care home has been approved for a site off Weymouth’s Radipole Lane close to the Wessex Wessex Stadium and police station.
It comes from a Leeds company, LNT Care Developments, which says the site would create almost 60 full and part-time jobs.
The proposal says the site would have enough parking for 29 cars with two additional disability spaces as well as room for bicycles. Up to two dozen staff are expected to be working on the site at any time.
Five objections were received to the scheme including concerns about the level of parking space, the speed of vehicles in the lane and a lack of footpath, as well as a lack of public transport. There were also worries about the height of the building and the risk to an established hedgerow.
The company behind the home says it has developed more than a hundred care homes since 2005, working in partnership with others, or its own in-house business, Ideal Care Homes.
It says that it tries to make each building as sustainable as possible, including the use of ground source heating and cooling system.
They propose to develop the site with an L-shaped, three-storey, residential care home with associated access, parking and landscaping.
Said a statement to Dorset Council:
“The care home is intended very much as a local community care facility, to be occupied and staffed by local people.
“The proposed facility would be fully compliant with modern standards and expectations: providing single-room accommodation throughout; all with en-suite wet room facilities; a generous ratio of communal/recreational space per resident; level access throughout; and vertical lift access between floors. The scheme is to be developed in a configuration which enables the care home to provide general residential and residential dementia care.”
The application says the development would have a positive impact on the area and relate in its character and style to the adjacent Police HQ.
“ There has been demonstrated to be a need for this type of care facility within the area and given the particular characteristics of the plot, there is considered to be a strong case for permitting the development of this important new facility to proceed for delivery during 2021-22.
“The proposed development has been carefully planned and designed to offer a building of an attractive and appropriate appearance to the locality that will offer an important service and local community support facility.”