A NEW nursing home will be built near Gillingham.

An application to build a 75-bedroom care home on land adjacent to Park Villas on Shaftesbury Road has been given the thumbs up by district planning chiefs.

Councillors on North Dorset District Council’s planning committee backed planners’ recommendations to approve the application, subject to conditions.

Cllr Bill Batty-Smith, the committee’s chairman, said the nursing home would serve a countywide need.

“There is an increasingly aged population in Dorset as a whole. We have a much older population than most of the country. This nursing home is definitely needed, and has been shown to be needed,” said Cllr Batty-Smith.

The home will be built on a 1.4-acre site between Shaftesbury Road, the roundabout servicing Park Farm and Fernbrook Road, and a semi-detached house at Park Villas.

Tree planting is planned for the boundaries of the home with Shaftesbury Road and Park Villas, and Dorset Police has recommended higher fences for increased security.

Gillingham Town Council had backed the application, recommending that careful consideration be given to the final design to prevent overspill parking on Fern Brook Road.

But Richard Toye, the practice manager of the Gillingham Medical Practice, which runs surgeries on Shaftesbury Road and at Peacemarsh, said local GPs had concerns about the strain on existing medical resources.

“We are in discussions with the European Care Group and the primary care trust to try and mitigate the impact of such a large intensity of extra patients,” said Mr Toye.

More than 70 new jobs are expected at the home, with staff working a pattern of three shifts. As many as 20 staff are planned for the day shifts, with about half as many needed at night.