New bid to build homes for children with illnesses

11:09am Sunday 20th July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A CHARITY'S fresh bid to build respite homes in a north Hampshire village for children with life-threatening illnesses has divided opinion.

Sebastian's Action Trust wants to build two four-bedroomed houses and one two-bedroomed home on agricultural land in North Waltham to allow the families of children battling conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis and a range of disorders affecting the nervous system to take holidays together.

The planning application to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has attracted two petitions and more than 160 comments, with 124 responses in favour of the proposal and 36 against - including North Waltham Parish Council.

A previous application for a different site near North Waltham was refused planning permission in May last year.

More than £800,000 has been raised so far by the trust to pay for the respite accommodation, which would include an indoor pool, spa, games room, music room and library facilities for the two families that could visit at any one time.

The land for the proposed homes in Popham Lane, south-east of Wheatsheaf Garage, was gifted to the trust by landowner Patrick Sweeney. The trust claims the homes would be the first such scheme in the UK.

Fundraising for the project was launched by nine-year-old Ascot boy Sebastian Gates 12 days before he died on Christmas Eve 2003, after a long battle with cancer.

Sebastian's mother Jane Gates, a trust director, said: "As a parent of a child who has fought terrible illness I understand how much families need opportunities to spend precious time together, away from hospitals, the endless rounds of treatment and the constant disruptions of family life.

"I urge Basingstoke council to seize this chance to become pioneers in giving approval to our scheme, which will offer countless families the kind of break they need to escape such pressures at a time when their child's future may seem so uncertain."