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Staverton House care home, on New Terrace in Staverton, has made yet another application to knock down a building on the site and replace it with an extension that would see 26 bedrooms added to the care home The latest planning application was submitted to Wiltshire Council on Thursday, March 20. The application reads: “Demolition of The Old Vicarage with replacement building and extension to Staverton House, providing 13 Bedrooms on Lower Ground Floor, 12 Bedrooms on Ground Floor, all with auxiliary space & together with the Existing Care Home would provide 46 bedrooms total and associated works.” The application goes on to describe the most recent use of the site: “Site is partially vacant as The Old Vicarage at the front is a former care home which ceased operation in November 2021.
The rear of the site remains operational for 20 residents at Staverton House.” According to the planning statement, the ‘original’ redevelopment application was filed in October, 2021, but permission was refused at the Wiltshire Council Planning Committee in January 2023. An appeal was filed in December 2023, which was dismissed on the grounds of harm to living conditions of No.
6 Littlebrook. In August last year, the Wiltshire Times reported that the strategic planning committee had voted against a revised expansion at a planning meeting on Wednesday, August 7. The applicant, Fidelia Care, had submitted a revised application after plans to replace the building with a larger facility were previously refused by Wiltshire Council in 2023.
Recommended reading Update on bank closure after car smashed through Nationwide branch New rules at M&S car park spark massive debate It had caused controversy at the time, with neighbours objecting to the size of the new development and the demolition of the Old Vicarage. During that meeting, although the applicant argued the revised plans took concerns into consideration, neighbour Eric Anderson maintained that the three-storey building was too large. He described the application as trying to fit a “square peg in a round hole” and reported that the process had been a “rollercoaster” with a “dramatic” effect.
He said: “My wife and I, for example, have felt quite threatened and concerned by the scale of this proposition and the proximity of it. “I think we have felt a lot of stress and anxiety about the uncertainty for the future and the threat of two or more years of construction noise and disruption.” The manager of Staverton House, Claire Sweeney, was also present at the meeting to speak about the demand for their “constantly full” services.
She said: “Sadly, the service we offer is quite rare – we provide specialist dementia care. “You could be forgiven for thinking most care homes do, but this is not the case.” The proposals submitted in March 2025 have reduced the increase in the number of bed spaces from 32 to 26 alongside the existing 20 in the Staverton House site.
The planning statement reads: “The application is submitted in response to an unsuccessful sequence of planning application and appeal decisions which had sought to increase the operational capacity in order to make this critically local adult social care facility efficient, effective and in-line with today’s more exacting care standards than in the past.” Elsewhere in the planning statement, the developers elaborate on the demolition of the existing, and unoccupied building: “The demolition of the old building is unavoidable if a modern care home is to remain at the site at an operationally viable scale.” The application has elicited responses from locals, with one neighbour, Simon Rivers, objecting on grounds “including loss of privacy, visual dominance, and a failure to properly respond to the current site context and adjacent properties.
” The consultation period is currently due to come to an end on May 2, with a decision due by June 30..
