New 66-bed Royal Navy veterans care home for Portsmouth approved despite legal row

During a heated planning committee meeting on Wednesday members overturned an expected refusal despite being told it was not legal, for the site in Locksway Road in Milton.

The home, which will be named Admiral Jellicoe House and run by the Royal Navy Benevolent Trust (RNBT), will replace the former Forest Lodge home on land south of the St James' Hospital site that is also set to be redeveloped.

During the virtual meeting, Ian Maguire, the council's assistant director of planning, said councillors couldn’t legally approve it without an appropriate assessment by officers after concerns over ‘poor design, excessive scale and massing’, as well as nitrogen pollution in the Solent worsened by building.

But Councillor Matt Atkins believed 'exceptional circumstances' were needed for a refusal. He said: ‘They reviewed a large number of sites across Portsmouth where they could put a care home of this nature.

'We have an obligation to find site for naval veterans and provide them with the care they need. They need to be exceptional circumstances to turn down these plans.’

Cllr Luke Stubbs agreed. 'I think care homes do have a standard look and feel to them because they are all dealing with the same economic constrictions,’ he said. ‘Make it too small and it won’t be viable and make it too big and you can’t fill it.’