DEVELOPERS hoping to turn the site of a former care home in Romsey into almost 50 retirement flats have overcome a final hurdle in their battle for permission.

An appeal by Churchill Retirement Living against Test Valley Borough Council's decision to block the scheme has been allowed.

This means there are no longer any obstacles to the company's plans to demolish Edwina Mountbatten House on Broadwater Road, much to the disappointment of town councillors.

One said the decision was "horrendous", while another said he was "gutted".

Meanwhile, Churchill said the "positive" decision showed the planning committee was "incompetent".

On hearing the news, Cllr John Parker, a Liberal Democrat member of Romsey Town Council, who said: "Oh grief, that's horrendous. It's going to be an unfortunate blight on the entrance to Romsey. It's a great shame."

Edwina Mountbatten House (Image: Newsquest) Cllr Parker had hoped the council could persuade inspectors to see the development project from the point of view of local people who might not want such a big building in a prominent position.

He said: "I thought we had good arguments lined up [but] there was a very aggressive [representative] for [Churchill Living] who destroyed our arguments."

Another Lib Dem town councillor, John Critchley, was equally disappointed with the decision.

"I have to say it was what we expected, but gutted I think is the word," he said. "The building wasn't appropriate and the whole thing is unfortunate. A lot of people will be very, very disappointed. Because they gave in at the inquiry, I think most of us thought that inspectors would [allow the appeal]."

This summer, a decision to concede an appeal made by Churchill against Test Valley Borough Council's refusal of planning permission for the scheme was met with outrage. It came in a public inquiry into Churchill Retirement Living's scheme for 47 flats.

A Churchill Living spokesperson said: “This is a very positive result and after a long delay we will now look forward to starting work on this new development. Our planning application should never have been refused in the first place after the positive work with the Council’s professional officers and subsequent recommendation for approval before being overturned by the Committee.  

“The inevitable positive appeal result demonstrates how incompetent the planning committee is, and actions like this fully justify the Government’s drive to properly educate planning committees, make them smaller in size and less parochial, but also to increase the delegated powers for professional officers where schemes like this accord with the development plan. 

“This appeal process will have cost the local taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds, which could have been significantly more had we decided to go for costs against the council in light of the committee's unreasonable behaviour. It has cost Churchill hundreds of thousands of pounds in expenses and delays.

“This is all at a time when we're in a housing crisis and have a rapidly aging population. The economy is struggling and we need to encourage growth and investment, not create unnecessary barriers and delays. It’s no wonder Romsey has so much pressure on greenfield growth and expansion when the elected members don’t support this type of development on an underutilised brownfield site in the town centre.”

“Delivering new homes in this location will help to reduce the need for greenfield development to meet the urgent demand for new homes locally. By giving older people in and around Romsey the option to downsize, it will also help release many larger, second-hand properties back onto the market for local families to move into, also creating opportunities for local first time buyers to get onto the ladder.”