PLANS to build a new £11.2 million extra care facility on the site of the controversially-closed Nightingale Lodge have taken a big leap forward.

Test Valley Borough Council agreed a grant of £1.62 million which has been in the pipeline since the closure in 2014.

The scheme, undertaken by Hampshire County Council and housing association Family Mosaic, costs £11.2 million but is dependent on the contribution from the borough council and other grants. 

The site will provide 54 affordable rented extra care assisted flats, alongside a restaurant and communal spaces and a new, independently-run, day service facility.

Now, following the grant, assurances on the scheme have been made by the county council, which closed the Greatbridge Road care home.

However, planning permission is yet to be given.

County councillor Mark Cooper says the news is welcomed in the community.

“The grant from Test Valley Borough Council is warmly welcomed in Romsey and should allow this excellent and much-needed project to get off the ground,” he said. 

“I have visited other Hampshire-sponsored extra care facilities and they offer quality accommodation at a much higher level of quality than is usual in the affordable sector.” 

He added: “I was given an undertaking at the time (of its closure) that the old Nightingale Lodge, which had inadequate facilities for its elderly residents, would be replaced by an extra care facility with 54 flats for residents moving from the social housing sector.

“I have expressed my concern to the county council about the slow progress of the replacement buildings.”

County Council, Graham Allen, has now assured me that the priority remains with the vulnerable people of Romsey and the development of this site to benefit those residents is key.”

The project has been slowed by significant changes in Government policy over the last year; Government capital subsidies have been reduced whilst rent levels previously enjoyed by housing associations are also threatened.

Controversy shrouded the closure of the care home in 2014. Protesters rallied outside the civic offices in Winchester as a decision was made to close four care homes across the district.

But in December 2013, the county council voted to shut both Nightingale Lodge and Bulmer House, in Petersfield, immediately with Basingstoke’s Deeside care home forced to close the following autumn.