Building more than 100 new homes on a former nursing home near the Tobacco Factory in South Bristol would breach planning policy because of the extra strain the new residents would put on already over-subscribed doctors’ surgeries.
That is the message from NHS bosses, who have warned that unless they get a share of the money the developers have to pay to the community after building the new homes, the project will be breaching planning rules.
The council is yet to decide whether 106 new homes can be built on the site of the former Amerind Grove Nursing Home in Ashton Gate, but the developers are already pressing ahead with plans to demolish the buildings there.
Local residents have been informed that a separate application has been made to demolish the buildings there by an Essex-based demolition firm. The nursing home, which once cared for some of Bristol’s most vulnerable elderly residents, closed down suddenly at the end of 2022, after Bristol Live had revealed its owners, controversial care home operator HC-One, had been marketing the site to be sold as a residential development site for around a year before relatives of residents there were told it was going to close.
Health and social care chiefs in Bristol had to find other homes to move the residents to, and HC-One eventually sold the site to developers The Hill Group. They submitted plans to build 106 new homes in its place, creating two new terraced streets of homes in a space between the two Ashton Gate primary school sites, near the Tobacco Factory and Aldi. The site, which comprises five bungalow blocks of residential nursing home accommodation and a two-storey administration building, has been occupied by a property guardian scheme for more than a year while council planners decide its fate.
The application to demolish the buildings on the site has been submitted before a final decision on a plan to build new homes there has been made. In the letter to people living around the nursing home, a council manager said the owners of the site had asked for permission to demolish all the buildings there – something which could begin to happen within weeks.
The application to build homes in its place has been with the city council for 15 months without a decision being made. While the development does not appear to be too controversial among the various council departments at City Hall, health chiefs have objected to the proposal, pointing out that a development of 106 new homes would create another 254 residents in the local area who would need to register with already over-subscribed GP surgeries.
A letter from the regional integrated care board, which runs primary care in the NHS, said they wanted developer’s financial contributions to the community infrastructure to go to the provision of a new doctors’ surgery or health centre in the Bedminster, Ashton Gate and Southville area.
“The proposed development would create up to 106 new homes, generating an estimated 254 residents in the local area,” the letter from Tim James, the head of strategic estates for the ICB, and Mohammed Yousuf, a senior town planner from NHS Property Services, written back in June, said.
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“This would have a direct impact on local healthcare services and therefore will require mitigation, warning that without ‘appropriate mitigation’, the development would not comply with the council’s own planning policies. “Without appropriate healthcare mitigation, the development will be unsustainable, putting future residents’ health at risk,” they added.
The NHS bosses put a figure on the amount of money they would need to create additional space in GPs surgeries to cope with the extra 254 residents – £147,407 in total. The application is expected to be decided in the coming weeks by council officers or councillors.