Welcome to our online public consultation
Welcome to this virtual consultation on draft proposals for the development of Old Clayton Kennels, Storrington Road, Washington.
The proposals include the removal of the existing Kennels and Cattery as well as other existing buildings and redevelopment to provide a new, modern care home and 8 no. age-restricted bungalows with improvements to the site entrance on to Storrington Road.
The site represents an ideal location for the provision of high quality specialist care accommodation for older people and will help meet identified needs and the growing demand for such facilities locally in Storrington and across Horsham district.
Update: 23rd September 2021
Following the public consultation, a planning application has now been submitted with due regard having been taken to all the comments and feedback received from the recent consultation.
All application documents and plans can be viewed on the Horsham District Council planning website here. The Application Reference is DC/21/2161.
Further updates will appear on this page, so please visit again to follow progress. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please email us.
Download the Public Consultation document
You can download our Public Consultation Document which contains full details of the proposals.
Barchester Healthcare
Barchester Healthcare is a national operator of care homes specialising in delivering top quality care to residents, in well staffed, comfortable, secure and happy homes and is are able to provide all types of care ranging from residential, nursing and dementia care including specific care for adults with mental health needs.
Barchester was identified by Highwood early in the design process allowing the design of the home to be specifically tailored to its operational and design needs.
The design intent is to create a relaxing and easily recognisable environment through the avoidance of strong symmetry and repetition and restraining building proportions to maintain a domestic scale.
Barchester Healthcare, continued
Key elements of the proposed Barchester care home will consist of:
- A safe and secure environment
- Specialist design to assist with both the living experience and care of the residents, as well as assisting carers provide the required level of care
- Individual bedrooms with accessible en suites
- A variety of day-spaces, cafe, cinema, hairdressers which are light and bright spaces for residents and visitors
- Direct access to landscaped safe external spaces
Site location
The site is located north of the A283 Storrington Road to the south and east of the adjoining residential estate John Ireland Way, which was built circa 2010. The site is approximately 2.1km east of Storrington town centre, and 1.5 km west of Washington via the A24. The site area is approxmiately 1.35 hectares, split into 0.86 hectares for the care home and 0.49ha for the bungalows.
The residential estate of John Ireland Way, is located to the north and west, separated by a tree-lined bank and acoustic fencing along the western boundary and close board fencing, trees and a steep retaining wall to the north. John Ireland Way is situated within a former quarry and the houses generally sit at a lower ground level than the site. To the east are fields which represent the start of the South Downs National Park which also extends to the south of Storrington Road. Old Clayton, a Grade II Listed former farmhouse adjoins the site to the south east. Another residential dwelling neighbours the site to the south at West Clayton.
Access
The site has vehicular and pedestrian access on to Storrington road from an existing track located to the south western corner of the site.
Pedestrian facilities within the vicinity of the site are good. Footways measuring approx. 2m wide flank the northern (development) side of Storrington Road. Footways measuring approximately 1.7m flank the southern side of Storrington Road.
There are dropped kerbs and tactile paving present either side of the site access, as well as dropped kerbs, tactile paving and a pedestrian refuge crossing point present approximately 60m east of the proposed site access to facilitate safe movement of pedestrians towards the westbound bus stop.
Public Transport
The nearest bus stops are the ‘Hampers Lane’ stops located to the south of the site on Storrington Road, approximately 30m west of the site access (eastbound) and approximately 80m east of the site access (westbound) respectively.
These bus stops provide services to the surrounding areas including the 100 service to Burgess Hill and Horsham, that runs every hour Monday-Saturday. The number 1 bus service runs to Worthing/Midhurst every hour Monday-Saturday and every 2 hours on a Sunday.
The site
The site comprises a collection of tired looking buildings and structures associated with the existing kennels and cattery business, two existing residential dwellings, their gardens and other incidental grassed areas and hardstandings.
Some of the buildings, including the existing yard fronting the main road formed part of the historical curtilage of the Listed, Old Clayton.
The existing kennels and cattery business became unviable during the onset of the COVID pandemic and is sadly planning to close.
The closure is an opportunity to remove an existing source of noise from dogs barking and to improve amenity for nearby residents.
The site, continued
The aerial photographs show the location of buildings and grassed areas. There are a number of trees within the site and notably along the western, northern and eastern boundaries.
Apart from the frontage buildings, which are untidy and unattractive, the site is not visible or prominent when viewed from Storrington Road and boundary vegetation limits views of existing structures from other surrounding locations.
Site photographs
Captions for images:
- (top) Internal view of yard and cattery buildings.
- (bottom left) Site entrance and frontage buildings onto Storrington Road.
- (bottom right) Existing dwellings and parking with trees along northern boundary of the site in the background.
Constraints
- 20m no build zone
- Medium pressure gas main with an approximate 1.5m easement
- Electricity cable with approximate 1.5m easement
- Existing buildings on the southern boundary including a Grade Listed dwelling (indicated)
- Root protection areas associated with existing trees
- Proximity to neighbouring properties on John Ireland Way
- Proximity to Sandgate Quarry
- Proximity to the South Downs National Park
- Need to preserve Countryside Protection View as identified in Neighbourhood Plan
The need for care and homes
The population nationally and in the local area is growing increasingly old and there is a growing demand for specialist accommodation for older people, to receive care and to downsize. Providing a care home helps meet the need for specialist care and the bungalows will help those downsizing, freeing up other family sized homes elsewhere. Planning policy in the form of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires local authorities to plan for specialist housing to meet needs, including housing for older people.
A needs assessment has been undertaken to identify the main requirements for a care home in the locality.
There is a significant shortfall in and around Storrington; therefore, failing to provide local residents with a sufficient number of beds to address the demand, or provide them with a choice of homes.
The Proposals
Concept and approach
The adjacent image highlights our concept and approach for this proposed development, including:
- Hedgerows and boundary planting
- Arrangement of bungalows
- Care home setting
- Staddle stone barn setting
- Entrance building
The Proposals, continued
Following detailed appraisal of the site and surroundings, a review of planning policy and consideration of the opportunities and constraints, the proposals are for a new landscape-led development consisting of:
- 60-bed care home
- 8 bungalows, age-restricted to over 55 year olds
- Improvements to provide a landscaped front entrance and improved visual frontage to Storrington Road
- Removal of outdated and unsightly kennel/cattery buildings within the site and on site entrance
- Retention and relocation of a historic staddle stone barn
The Proposals, continued
- Careful design of built form and boundary treatments to preserve the setting of the Grade II Listed building
- Landscaping and new planting across the site and on boundaries to provide an appropriate transition with the South Downs National Park and suitable relationship with neighbours
- ‘Nature Walk’ with creation of native planted spaces within the site
- 25 car parking spaces for care home visitors and staff
- 16 car parking spaces for the bungalows
- Sustainable construction adopting BREEAM assessment and to local authority standards
The Care Home
The proposed care home is located to the rear of the site, protected in views from the north and west by boundary planting and to the south by frontage buildings.
The height and scale has been kept to two storeys to minimise any longer distance visibility from the South Downs National Park to the south and east.
The vernacular materials pallete has also been formulated with this essential requirement in mind. The southern elevation of the Care Home utilises a dark tiled roof and dark facing cladding to walls.
The Care home, continued
Lighting across the site is kept to a minimum acknowledging the Dark Skies policy of the SDNPA.
The proposed care home will meet the emerging policy compliant approach to sustainable construction of BREEAM Very Good.
25 car parking spaces are provided for staff and visitors, along with ambulance/drop off areas.
Secure, landscaped grounds will provide an attracive environment for residents. The areas around the care home (and across the site) will benefit from a high quality landscaping and planting specification.
The Bungalows
The bungalow accommodation is positioned around a central yard with vehicle access to car ports giving each dwelling two parking spaces.
The design of the buildings is intended to reflect the local vernacular and conservation history of the site with regards to both the building forms and materials ensuring that no two buildings are the same as would be typical of building typology.
The Bungalows, continued
Scale, height and bulk has been kept to a minimum to minimise visibility from outside the site, particularly given the proximity of the South Downs National Park to the east and south.
Storrington Road Frontage
The artist’s impression above shows proposed improvements to the site access following demolition of unsightly existing buildings shown.
A widened access allows more space for safe access and egress, provision of a separate pedestrian footway, new planting and landscaping and the creation of an attractive new frontage to Storrington Road. The existing building to the east of the access road will be reduced in size to create a new walled garden for the existing property.
A new ‘gatehouse’ is proposed to form the south western corner of this garden to reflect the original access point from the highway and a new pedestrian path is proposed to run along the existing access road through an avenue of new trees and planting, through to the new devlopment. This would be separated with estate fencing to define the boundary.
Please visit this page for updates
We’ll post updates to our proposals on this page, so please check back if you’d like to follow the progress of our proposals. If you have any questions in the meantime, please click to contact us.