Stangrove Lodge, part of the Abbeyfield Kent Society, a registered charity and housing association, recently submitted planning permission to extend care services at its care home in Edenbridge for frail residents and those, younger and older with Dementia.
The Society was called in to help after John Froud, Chairman of Royal British Legion (RBL) Edenbridge branch, was featured in a recent article for the Courier Newspaper called ‘Don’t force our pensioners out’ the article was also supported by Kent County Councilor (KCC), Peter Lake.
In the article John Froud of RBL said:
“We are running into the wall. We are all living longer therefore we are going to need to provide more rather than less. There is a real funding problem.”
After publication of this article John Froud, Chairman of RBL, Peter Lake, KCC Counilor and Leon Steer, Chief Executive of The Abbeyfield Kent Society met to discuss ways in which the Society could help this serious and growing problem.
Leon Steer, Chief Executive said:
“A recent article called ‘Don’t force our pensioners out’ featuring John Froud, and Peter Lake, raised the issue of shortages in publically funded care home places forcing older people from Edenbridge out, and up to 30 miles away.
Following this article, the Society, met with John Froud, RBL and Peter Lake, KCC to see what could be done to increase older people’s services in Edenbridge and to stop the appalling way ex-service men are being treated.
The population of older people is changing rapidly with 6,000 more over 65s in Kent every year which means the demand for care is only going to significantly increase. We’re doing our best to meet this demand. We are concerned about the increasing number of lonely and isolated older people who live alone in Kent.
After this meeting it was decided that the situation for extra older peoples services in Edenbridge was urgent and that the current, Stangrove Lodge site had suitable space for improvements to alleviate this need. The outcome of these projects would be undertaken in two different phases and these plans were submitted to the local council in March of this year. Phase 1 of the development was recently approved by Edenbridge Town Council.
The feature in the article in The Courier Newspaper stated that Stangrove Lodge is the only care home in Edenbridge to provide County Council funded places.
John Froud also commented:
“Yes we could do with more spaces it is a concern. When you see people who have lived here and their friends are here and they are shoved off far away it affects everybody because of travelling to see them.”
The two phase project at Stangrove Lodge will provide an extra 43 spaces for older, isolated members of the Edenbridge community. The current care home houses 47 residents. However, if the development plans are approved it will provide personal care, support and companionship to 90 older people from the Edenbridge area.
A second article from the Courier in April of this year has highlighted local resident issues surrounding the developments.
Ian Thomas, Director of Property & Development of The Abbeyfield Kent Society comments:
“We were delighted that Edenbridge Town Council did not object to Phase 1 (application SE/10/00712/FUL) which is not due a planning decision until 11th May 2010. This is the first phase of our plans for this site and we have funding to complete this work should we be successful in obtaining planning consent. Our other application Phase 2 (SE/10/00715/FUL), which is a major scheme, did not receive support from the Town Council. This is a much larger development and is the longer term proposal for The Society’s work with local older people in Edenbridge.
It is not due a decision until 15th June 2010. We do appreciate our proposal is a large scheme and any such development is bound to raise concerns with local residents. We consider it our responsibility to try and alleviate their concerns and discuss the points raised with them. We hope to arrange a public meeting with local residents to discuss the concerns raised at the meeting and will do this once the application has completed its consultation phase with Sevenoaks District Council. We anticipate this will be at some point in early to middle of May. Some of the points raised at last nights meeting such as traffic flow and parking will be dealt with by the Planning Officers and their appointed professional associates.”
Leon Steer, Chief Executive of The Abbeyfield Kent Society comments:
“Receiving full planning permission for the project at Stangrove Lodge will enable us to home 43 more vulnerable older people; providing essential care and support services to Edenbridge’s local community, who would potentially be moved out of the area. We will do all we can to support older people in our communities and we believe our work in this area, together with Royal British Legion and Kent County Council will only help to tackle the issues of growing older in this current climate”