PLANS to extend a Hopwood retirement home are set to be discussed at a planning committee meeting next week.

Hopwood Court, on Birmingham Road has put forward proposals to more than double its residential capacity.

However, planners have recommended permission to be refused as the home is located within Green Belt land.

Currently the retirement home, which specialises in dementia care, has 20 beds but has applied to expand its capacity to 48 beds.

Planning permission is sought for single storey, first floor and two storey extensions which would also provide three additional communal living/dining rooms, a laundry room, and an enclosed landscaped garden.

All new bedrooms would have en-suite facilities and car parking provision would increase from ten spaces to 30.

Redditch Advertiser: This is what Hopwood Court could look like if plans were passed. This is what Hopwood Court could look like if plans were passed.

As well as doubling capacity, the plans look to double the number of staff from 12 full time members of staff and 20 part time to 24 full time and 40 part time.

The care home said the expansion ‘would help meet the critical housing need for the elderly.’

The design and access statement states: “There is a current shortfall of residential and dementia beds, and this is exacerbated by the concentration of residential care closer to Bromsgrove and Alvechurch.

“The Alvechurch Neighbourhood Plan recognises this at a very local level, noting that “The parish’s population has a high percentage of elderly residents: 29 per cent of our residents are aged over 60” and that “elderly people are a growing proportion of Alvechurch population. Population projections suggest that this trend is likely to continue and become more pronounced.”

The statement then goes on to say the development is an ‘extension of an existing retirement home and is situated within an established garden’ therefore will not ‘result in the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas.’

However, planners said in a report: “As the proposal would result in disproportionate additions to a non-residential building in the Green Belt that would also fail to preserve the openness of the Green Belt, the proposal would constitute inappropriate development.”

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The plans are due to be heard by committee next Monday, December 6.