PLANS to demolish a Winchester care home and replace it with a 60-bed specialist dementia facility have been approved in principle.

The proposal for the former 20-bed Abbeygate Residential Care Home, in Quarry Road, was submitted last October, around a year after it closed.

City councillors voted unanimously to approve the scheme, subject to further satisfactory site reports.

However, the plans proved controversial with residents, due to its size and scale, despite being amended.

The committee meeting heard from St Giles Hill resident David Hoggett who said he wanted to “protect the conservation area from an overbearing building”.

Mr Hoggett said he welcomed charity Brendoncare’s involvement in the care home, but said the plans appeared “dominant, overbearing and out of character”.

Another objector, Maureen Stevens, of Quarry Road, in a letter: “I still feel that a 60-bed care home is too large for that position. Quarry Road is a narrow road with bad junctions and is not suited to all the extra traffic that the home will create.Abbeygate does need redeveloping but not to this extent.”

Defending the plans, James Wallace, director of Hunters Architects, said there was little more they could do to reduce the impact because of tree root protection zones on the development site.

Supporting the scheme, committee member Cllr Eileen Berry said: “This is something that is needed not just here in Winchester. We are desperate for this kind of facility.”

Cllr Jane Rutter added: “I think it is unfortunate people think this conflicts with the St Giles Hill Neighbourhood Strategy, it’s already a large site.”

As previously reported, the new Abbeygate facility will be run by Brendoncare, who opened the new Otterbourne Hill care home in Otterbourne last summer, and Octopus Healthcare.

The former care home, then ran Safequarter was rated as ‘inadequate’ overall by the Care Quality Commission after an unannounced inspection in July 2017, and it was put into special measures.

However, spokeswoman said at the time the decision to close was made before the inspection.