The trustees of Cranleigh Village Health Trust have confirmed the community benefit that will come from their planning application, ahead of its consideration by Waverley Borough Council in the coming weeks.
Following the unexpected withdrawal of formal support for the scheme by the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Partnership, CVHT has considered a wide range of options for its planning application and land at Knowle Lane.
CVHT remains committed to the delivery of its charitable objectives, to ensure the return of community beds to Cranleigh.
As a registered charity, we have a duty to fulfil our objectives, namely the development of new health care facilities for Cranleigh and the surrounding villages, to help complement the excellent Primary Care facilities that are already available.
Success with our Planning Application for a Care Home on our Knowle Lane site, together with a building to provide 14 health workers’ accommodation units, remains the best way forward to achieve our charitable objectives.
The Planning Application, which will be considered by Waverley Borough Council, will secure community benefit in three main areas.
The provision of 16 residential care home beds (with nursing care), will be available in the first instance to means-tested residents from Cranleigh and the surrounding villages.
The withdrawal of ICP support does not diminish the significant and rising demand for residential care beds in Cranleigh, for local people, but does allow CVHT to apply its own criteria for use of these beds.
Where the ICP does not take up available community beds on a case-by-case basis, we would propose to enter into an agreement with the care home operator with the objective that CVHT will receive the difference in fees. This revenue will then be used to help enhance our charitable objectives, for example by providing financial support to local people to ‘top-up’ their care fees.
A further significant community benefit will be the building of the care home on a centrally located site in the village, allowing easy access for friends and family members to visit.
The building of the health worker accommodation units is also a significant community benefit, providing an affordable place to live for these highly valued keyworkers, as well as generating a yearly income stream for the charity, which will be used to fund local health care priorities.
Following a successful planning application, CVHT looks forward to working with Cranleigh Parish Council and other local stakeholders to complete the detail around the criteria for local people being offered first access to the community beds and the best use of revenue from the care home operator and keyworker accommodation.
There has been much speculation in recent months about the continued role of HC-One as our preferred care home operator. HC-One remains a strong contender, but should any issue arise with them, we are confident a new partner could be found, once planning permission is obtained, due to the high demand and need in the area.
We look forward to our planning application being heard by the Waverley Borough Council Eastern Planning Committee shortly, having addressed all planning objections raised during our previous application.
