Heartbreak in famous seaside town as last care home turned into hotel | UK | News

Angela Rayner is being urged to overrule her own planning inspectors after they approved an appeal to turn a seaside town’s last care home into a Premier Inn – which relatives say could “kill” the elderly residents who will be forced to move. More than 600 neighbours, locals, business owners and politicians had objected to the planned sale of Trewidden Care Home in the beautiful Cornish town of St Ives, and Cornwall Council agreed, rejecting the planning application in May 2024.

But the local authority’s ruling was sensationally overturned by the Government Planning Inspectorate at appeal this month, meaning around 39 elderly residents face being removed from the last facility of its kind in the town in as little as “six months”. Now campaigners have taken a letter addressed directly to the Deputy Prime Minister urging Ms Rayner to “call in” the decision made by the inspectors overseen by her own department, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. The letter was handed over to Ms Rayner’s staff in White Hall on Wednesday with support from local Liberal Democrat MP, Andrew George.

Cornwallis Care Services which run the private home describe it as a “residential home specialising in dementia care”.

A terrified daughter of one of those living at Trewidden said she feared that her dad, who has Alzheimer’s, may not survive if the plans go ahead. The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: “I am concerned about my dad. He is a resident in the home, I think the move will kill him.”

And Craig Wolstenholme, whose 86-year-old grandmother Jenny Lang lives at Trewidden, said the decision to allow a 90-bed hotel to be built on the site of the home was “appalling”. He told the Daily Express “St Ives born and bred” Jenny needed a wheelchair and hoist now to move around since falling ill. Her devoted family visits the mother-of-three seven days a week bringing her homemade food, she is especially a fan of a crumble with custard.

Mr Wolstenholme said: “The idea that the care home is being shut to build a hotel is absolutely heart-breaking. Where will my gran go? And the many other residents. Many of our family don’t drive, and walk to the care home to see her. She could be placed miles and miles away. Away from her home town and all her family, and everything she knows.

“Gran loves where she is and adores all of the amazing staff at Trewidden. These people are angels, who work tirelessly and lovingly. What about them?

“Words can’t describe how mad, angry and sad me and my family are at the closure of this wonderful care home. The only care home in St Ives.”

Jenny worked all her life in St Ives, sometimes doing three jobs at once, including cleaning a doctors surgery and cinema, and working in a kitchen at an infant’s school, as well as serving at the Sloop Inn pub.

Mr Wolstenholme said he believed more care homes were needed not less, adding “Gran was very ill last year and spent a lot of time in hospital, if it wasn’t for the care home and the amazing staff, I have no doubt my gran wouldn’t be with us today. I worry that the closure of this care home and upheaval of moving them across the county could severely impact these fragile people’s health.”

Shelley Thornton, one of the campaigners who took the letter to White Hall on Wednesday, said the hotel was “totally the wrong thing, in the wrong place”, adding: “St Ives is known as the basket case of British overtourism, we already have far too much tourist accommodation of all shapes and sizes, for all budgets. We are bursting at the seams all season.

“We are still a small village really, with only around 5,400 people living here.

“You have a number of interested parties here, first of all the care home residents and their families, most of whom have lived here all their lives. It’s also one of the few residential areas left in St Ives where people actually live, there are a few Airbnbs, but mostly it’s local people.

“The site is also on an unsuitable road, it’s a one-way route that gets very congested and leads to a car park that serves two schools and two nurseries and a leisure centre. People living here think the hotel is going to cause chaos because there are 20 car parking spaces for 90 rooms.”

Ms Thornton admitted there will be some people accusing locals of being NIMBYs, but that the issue in this case was much more than that. She continued: “I don’t want it in my backyard, but it is much more than that. There have been over 600 objections.”

Fellow campaigner Michelle said losing the last care home in St Ives would be devastating to a town and region already desperate for care facilities.

She noted: “As we all know we have a growing older population and we are all at some point, whether it’s ourselves directly or relations need this sort of care.

“Cornwall in particular needs this care, we only have one hospital in the county and so when older people have perhaps had an operation and they need supported care, where will they go if they are from St Ives if this care home closes?

“If we were talking about closing a school, we would all be horrified, and we should be looking at the closure of this care home in the same respect.”

Michelle said the nearest similar facility were residents could be forced to go could be in Lostwithiel, around 50 miles away.

Local Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George is supporting the campaign to save the care home and helped the campaigners deliver their letter. He said if Ms Rayner overturns the appeal decision, she will be effectively overturning herself, which he said was a rare event happening perhaps “five times a year”.

He told the Daily Express: “I support St Ives campaigners who are challenging the inappropriate development of its last remaining care home.

“The planning proposal is clearly contrary to the very carefully prepared St Ives Neighbourhood Development Plan. Its size, scale, location, and impact on the adjoining neighbourhood are not supported by NDP policies. There is insufficient

infrastructure, including limited and highly contested parking spaces within the area. The location does not lend itself to adequately accommodate such a proposal.

“St Ives has become overly dependent on tourism. There are few facilities – including care homes – available for local people and the housing market operates almost as if locals shouldn’t live there anyway.

“For me, it’s an important matter of principle, that local communities which have carefully drawn up plans within the national planning policy framework should have their planning policies respected, and not blithely overridden as they have been in this case.

“I’m asking the Deputy Prime Minister to use her “call-in” powers. Though she would effectively be “calling-in” her own decision, it would be justified on the basis that it appears she may have been misled by her inspector.”

In the context of planning and government, “call in” refers to the power of a higher authority, often the Secretary of State, to take over the decision-making process on a planning application that would normally be decided by a local authority. In the ruling on May 13, Inspector Sylvia Leonard said she upheld the planning appeal and found the hotel would “not be unduly harmful to the immediate townscape within which it sits”.

Welcoming the decision Louise Woodruff, Property Acquisitions Manager at Whitbread, the group which owns Premier Inn, said: “We are very pleased that our planning appeal to bring Premier Inn to St Ives has been allowed. We will now work with the owner of Trewidden Care Home to complete the purchase of the site.

“This process is expected to take at least six months, enabling time for Cornwallis Care to support the residents and their families to transition to appropriate accommodation within their group.”

The Daily Express have contacted Cornwallis Care Services, which runs Trewidden Care Home, for comment.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said it could not comment on planning decisions.