The businessman behind plans for a five-star care village in Thorpe St Andrew has spoken of his excitement that the second half of his vision is now lodged with Broadland planners.
The plans plot a long-awaited future path for development of the site of the former Oasis Sports and Leisure Club, which currently lies derelict and is the regular target of vandals.
A team brought together by Tony Prendergast, of the care company which runs the award-winning Carlton Hall Village in Suffolk – and which has a similar project in the pipeline at Reepham – is seeking approval to demolish the existing buildings on the four-acre site.
They want to replace them with 24 state-of-the-art, high quality, assisted-living bungalows, 20 assisted-living flats, a café and offices – all within a landscaped setting.
The site sits alongside a similar-sized piece of land for which the developers already have full planning approval to build an 80-bed care home and 19 assisted-living bungalows.
Mr Prendergast said: “It’s a beautiful location and we will do all we can to enhance the beauty and tranquillity of the site.
"We are determined to promote the qualities and character of a rare, natural oasis on the outskirts of Norwich.
“We have worked hard with community groups to allay any concerns that the natural environment would suffer as a result of development.
“We want this care village to be a model for what can be achieved. To be a shining star for the community of Thorpe St Andrew.
"We want it to have a beautiful setting and exemplary architecture offering the very highest care standards, while helping to meet the city’s assisted living needs.
“We are now at an exciting stage. It has been a hard slog to get to this point, but it will now be all systems go, with funding in place to begin the first phase in September; we hope to be able to move on to phase two immediately after."
The application comes after Mr Prendergast initially applied for planning permission on May 18 2021.
The derelict site had previously been subject to break-ins and vandalism, and firefighters spent two hours tackling a fire inside the building in December 2019.
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