Care home could be built on former industrial estate

An former industrial site in a Herefordshire village could finally have a care home built on it.

The Malvern Water bottling plant on Walwyn Road, Colwall Stone, was closed by its then-owner Schweppes’ parent company Coca-Cola in 2010.

A plan to demolish the plant while leaving its grade II-listed Victorian Tank House standing, and replace them with 25 houses and a 46-bedroom care home, was submitted in 2013 – but only the houses were built.

A later application to build a 63-bedroom care home on the remaining southern part of the site, covering just under an acre, was approved in 2015 but again not implemented.

A surveyor’s letter accompanying the latest application says that surveys and reports that went with the two previous bids “remain pertinent, do not require updating and can be transferred to this application”.

The new design is for one three-storey L-shaped building, with some lower sections, rather than two separate buildings as previously.

It will have a traditional pitched roof, rather than the flat roofs of the previous design, and parking for 22 cars.

It has been forward by Rotherwood Healthcare, which already operates four care homes in Herefordshire.

It says the home would employ 30 full-time and six part-time staff when complete.

The application can be commented on until April 14, with a final decision due by the end of May.

Council planners last month rejected a bid to turn the Tank House into a private home.