Eastbourne care homes could be demolished to make way for housing

The Summerdown and Pentlow nursing homes on Summerdown Road would be knocked down and housing would be built, plans submitted to Eastbourne Borough Council say.

According to the plans, the development includes seven three-storey four-bed houses, two three-bed two-storey houses and a three-storey block of one-bed flats. All properties would also have a private garden and/or balcony with secure outdoor storage and allocated parking.

The plan says that due to the current nursing homes having been converted and extended on multiple occasions, they are ‘no longer able to address the ever-increasing needs that care homes are now required to provide’.

In terms of landscape, the documents say, “The site layout has been planned to facilitate the retention of the trees with additional planting and landscaping to complement and improve the site.”

Due to the mix of surrounding houses in the area, the plan says the development would be ‘appropriate’ to the site.

The new plans say that neighbours have ‘strongly and repeatedly stated’ that they wanted the site to be residential and building no higher than three-storeys tall.

Previously plans for the site have been refused. In February last year it was reported that plans to demolish the buildings for a new nursing home were dismissed due to concerns over the size of the proposed development - something that is now reduced in the new plans.