Plan to build 74-bed care home on derelict site

The Meadows has been vacant for over a decade

A long-derelict and vandalised property in Surrey could be torn down and rebuilt as a care home after sitting vacant for over a decade.

The Meadows site in Bagshot Road, Woking, which closed in 2013, could be demolished and turned into a 74-bed dementia specialist care home after Woking Borough Council (WBC) granted planning permission on Tuesday.

The approved plan, on land owned by Boutique Care Homes, is a variation on early plans to redevelop the site that had gone to appeal, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Despite concerns over building on greenbelt land, WBC councillor Louise Morales said it was "better than an empty site".

With construction work expected to begin next year, the home would be spread across a three to four-storey building for residential and dementia care for people aged 65 and over.

It would include day rooms, as well as a cinema, hairdressers, bistro, communal gardens and 24 car parking spaces.

The plan will address the shortfall of 130 dementia beds within Woking borough

There is a shortfall of dedicated dementia beds of 243, 130 of those within Woking borough.

Ms Morales told a WBC planning committee meeting: "I've seen this plan come forward many times and the size, the bulk, the mass….everybody said 'this is totally and utterly against our green belt'.

"But the building was, at that point, deteriorating and being severely vandalised and everybody said it would be far better to have it built rather than leave it empty for another 10 years and that was three years ago."

A spokesperson for the developer told the meeting the site had been "subject to significant vandalism and antisocial behaviour" and had also been "damaged by fire".

"Demolition and redevelopment of the site will eradicate this issue and bring a vacant site back into use for first time since 2013," they added.