Residents feeling 'grossly let down' as Portsmouth council approves 'too large' care home

During a controversial meeting at the end of July, Portsmouth city councillors gave the green light to a veterans care home - to be run by the Royal Naval Benevolent Trust (RNBT) - on the south of the St James' Hospital site in Locksway Road.

The RNBT said it would provide ‘residential, nursing and dementia care for naval veterans who have served their country in peace and war’.

But now the Milton Neighbourhood Planning Forum, which has been working on a sustainable plan for the area for the past five years, has hit out at the decision.

Rod Bailey, the chairman of the forum, said: 'We have been grossly let down.

'The officer's report made it plain the scheme was too large and poorly designed but the councillors ignored that.

'I don't have a problem with the occupation just the scale and the design. We need a more sympathetic scheme, it could be made smaller.

'We know there's an air pollution problem here, we have an air quality management area nearby. The scheme, along with the other two for the hospital, will amount to around 650 car parking spaces. Our highway network here can't cope with that.'

The existing Forest Lodge building on the site will be demolished, and 13 trees and a large hedge will be cut down to make way for the home.

It will be named Admiral Jellicoe House, and have 21 car parking spaces.

Kimberly Barrett, founder of the Keep Milton Green group, added: 'It's really disappointing that trees will be felled.

'The RNBT are wonderful people doing a wonderful job and I hope as it goes through the next stages the concerns are brought up and changes can be made that will benefit the community.'

During the meeting the council's assistant director of planning, said councillors couldn’t legally approve it without an appropriate assessment by officers but four councillors voted to approve the plans and two abstained.

Council leader and Milton ward representative Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, who is no longer a member of the planning committee, commented: 'I was extremely surprised by the decision. The officers made it very clear in their report that the design of it was poor but the majority of the councillors thought the benefits of the scheme outweighed the problems.'

Rob Bosshardt, chief executive of the RNBT, added: ‘RNBT is delighted that the councillors recognised the merits of the application to build a care home and so gave it the go-ahead.

'It will enable RNBT, a Portsmouth-based naval benevolence charity, to be able to provide residential, nursing and dementia care for naval veterans who have served their country in peace and war.'

Two other applications for the St James' Hospital site including 230 homes and 107 homes have yet to be considered by the council.

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