Replacement Crawley nursing home to replace flood-hit facility

The Gables, in Ifield Green, has stood empty since firefighters used boats to rescue the elderly residents from flood water on Christmas Eve 2013.

Now it will be replaced with a part two-storey, part three-storey 60-bed nursing home with 23 parking spaces.

At a meeting of the planning committee, members gave the thumbs-up to the application but asked for screening to be included round a balcony which would overlook a neighbouring house.

The land sits in a flood risk area but the developer came up with a clever way of countering that risk – the building will have an empty area beneath it to allow any flood water to flow through and away.

The ground floor of the new home will be slightly raised to keep it above the flood water line.

Peter Smith (Lab, Ifield) shared his memories of the 2013 evacuation, describing it as ‘harrowing’ and said he was pleased to see how much effort had gone into flood protection when designing the new building.

Kim Jaggard (Con, Maidenbower) said: “We do need care home spaces within Crawley and this is offering something much, much better than what is there currently.”

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