Plans for new care home at Bargain Farm withdrawn from planning meeting

Proposals for the new care home, at Bargain Farm, Nursling, were set to go before planners last month.

But developers, Hamberley Development Ltd, decided to pull the plans ahead of the meeting, after council planners recommended the scheme be refused.

A spokesperson for Hamberley said: "We have withdrawn this application from the planning committee stage to allow more time to work with local planning officers in order to respond to consultation comments.

“We look forward to the committee considering our updated proposal in the near future.”

The London-based developers had previously lodged plans for the site, on Frogmore Lane, which would include a total of 141 bedrooms.

The proposed scheme included an 80-bedroom nursing home with a focus on nursing, personal and dementia care.

Developers also wanted to build a 61-bedroom nursing home which will provide neurological rehabilitation services for individuals who require long-term support, rehabilitation, respite or short-stay care.

Developers said the care home will offer both private and local authority-funded services.

The plans, which developers say could create up to 190 jobs, were due to go before Test Valley Borough Council's Southern Area Planning Committee last month.

But ahead of the meeting, planning chiefs recommended the proposals be refused.

A report, produced ahead of the meeting, said the land had been allocated for business and industrial use in the council's local plan.

The report said: "The proposal failed to provide appropriate justification for the loss of this employment land."

Planning chiefs also described the design of the building as "bulky and monolithic" and said its heigh and length would result in a "poor, oppressive and overbearing outlook" for neighbour properties.

A spokesperson for the council confirmed that the plans had been withdrawn from the meeting by the applicant.