PLANS to demolish and rebuild flats at a supported housing complex in Hindhead have prompted fears that its elderly residents will be forced to move miles away for up to 18 months. There are particular concerns that two couples could be temporarily split up while the work is being carried out. However the Church of England Pensions Board, which runs the supported housing wing in Tilford Road, has said that it will do all it can to help the existing residents find a temporary home. The Manormead complex is made up of the supported housing for 35 residents and a 36-place nursing home, both of which are available to former clergymen, their families and other people closely associated with the church. The nursing home underwent improvements in 1997 to bring it up to standard and now the board is looking at doing the same for the supported housing. It is planning to create 35 new flats although this is dependent on planning permission being granted for the same number of homes. The nursing home should be unaffected throughout the building works. "Following a feasibility study, which looked at a number of options, the board has decided to demolish and rebuild the supported housing wing at Manormead," explained secretary and chief executive Shaun Farrell. "The facilities offered by the existing accommodation fall some way short of modern standards, are deficient for residents with care needs, and do not offer suitable access and circulation for those with disabilities. "The new facilities will be up to full modern standards for schemes of this sort, will provide more room in each flat, better access and circulation for the disabled and some specialist facilities for those with extra care needs. "The option of renovating the existing building was considered but the design and construction of the building precludes its internal adaptation and alteration to provide the facilities we are seeking to provide. "The brief to the architect will be to provide an equivalent number of spaces in the new build, although we are to some extent in the hands of the planning authorities." The works are expected to take between 12 and 18 months although no planning application for the proposals has yet been submitted to Waverley Borough Council. Although news of the redevelopment plans have been welcomed locally, there are fears over the transfer of residents while the works are being carried out. The Pensions Board has said that it will do its best to help residents find temporary homes and they will be treated as priorities if they ask to move to the board's other supported housing complexes at Lytham St Annes, Scarborough, Kibworth Beauchamp, Prestbury, Worthing and Exeter. "We have spoken to all existing residents on a one- to-one basis to establish their preferences for alternative accommodation during the rebuilding period and we will do our best to meet those preferences if we can," said Mr Farrell. "Some have expressed an interest in going to one of the other board properties as and when vacancies occur." However, Hindhead's borough councillor David Harmer, and prospective parliamentary Tory candidate Jeremy Hunt, who both met elderly residents at a coffee morning last weekend, are concerned that residents could be left with nowhere to go in the local area. Mr Hunt said that no one was against the much- needed improvements but "it is a case of what will happen to the residents in the meantime". "The residents are very concerned about this. They have got to find somewhere to live for 18 months and there is no guarantee that the Pensions Board will find them somewhere suitable to live." Both men are also particularly concerned about two couples who could be split up by the proposals. In both cases, one half of the couple lives in the nursing home and the other lives in the supported housing wing but they see each other on a daily basis. "I have been speaking to one of the residents whose wife is at the nursing home and at the moment he spends half of every day with her," Mr Harmer said. "He is very worried that he will have to go and live quite far away and won't be able to do that any more." Mr Farrell told The Herald that while the Pensions Board will do its best to keep the couples together, either at the nursing home or in close proximity, no guarantees can be made. "We will do our best to accommodate the residents' preferences and will do our best to keep couples together," he said. "However, we do need to balance that against the need to offer places in the nursing home to those who require that level of nursing care. This is the board's only nursing home." Mr Hunt has been in contact with MP Virginia Bottomley, who has written to the Pensions Board asking for someone to be appointed to specifically help the residents find temporary homes. "I am a regular visitor and great supporter of Manormead," she explained. " I am most concerned about the disruption to some of the most vulnerable residents and the possible distress of being so far from home."
