Rethink on Rothsay care home plan (From Andover Advertiser)

Rethink on Rothsay care home plan

11:18am Thursday 1st June 2006 in News By Steve Dancey

PLANS for a specialist care home on the site of the derelict Rothsay Hotel near Andover have been amended by the applicants in a bid to mute public opposition to the controversial scheme.

When Covenant Healthcare revealed their hand in March 2005 there was a storm of protest and 135 people, mostly from Weyhill and the Pentons, attended a public meeting to outline their concerns.

After more than a year the company says it has listened to people's fears and come back with a radically altered scheme.

Under the new plans the facility will only cater for female and adolescent patients with low-risk psychiatric problems and eating disorders.

It means there will no longer be a need for a 16 feet high security fence, the proposed buildings will be lower and the layout and landscaping have been amended.

"The new building will be lower than was proposed originally," said Jonathan Day Covenant's corporate development manager.

You can’t change once you have been registered with the Heathcare Commission.

Paul Jessop, the company’s commercial director of mental health services.

"We will dig down in to the ground much more than originally planned and will put what we can at a lower level.

"We are confident that the new layout will be less intrusive and more aesthetically pleasing."

Once opened there is no possibility that the unit will change in nature to take other types of patients, a company spokesman said.

"You can't change once you have been registered with the Heathcare Commission.

"You are stuck with what you are registered as," said Paul Jessop, the company's commercial director of mental health services.

For the full story see Friday's Andover Advertiser.