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26/00002/FUL Construction of a residential care home (Use Class C2) and associated communal spaces and services together with associated car parking and cycle parking, landscaping, refuse storage, sub station and associated works.

This application is for a possibly “grey belt” site, ostensibly suitable for residential development including family homes and affordable housing. But the applicant proposes instead a 70-bed care home, a use class that avoids the need to provide affordable housing and offers fewer homes than could be provided in the available space. The Society would prefer it be used for a purely residential development, especially in the light of the care home provision already permitted but unbuilt elsewhere in the Borough.

The Society has therefore objected via the Comments facility on the EEBC Planning website as follows:-

“This comment is on behalf of Epsom Civic Society (ECS).

Whilst ECS notes the site coming forward for housing development the committee consider that this application for a 70-bed care home is not offering the best use for the site.

ECS believes that the strong need of housing type requirement within EEBC area is for conventional family homes with gardens offering good quality amenity space for young families to experience and enjoy outdoor opportunities.

This application does not fulfil this need.

ECS considers that there has been in recent years an over provision of flats and retirement/care home living resulting in the housing mix being out of kilter and not offering what is urgently needed.

Importantly also, the application offers no provision of affordable housing. With family housing as ECS suggests, this could be achieved and helping towards the housing target including affordable.

In consequence of our comments above, the application should be rejected.”