Facility for former alcoholics set to be turned into homes

Plan lodged for site after it shut in November

A nursing home for former alcoholics is set to be converted into seven new homes, it has been revealed.

Roberta House in Upstreet, near Canterbury, had provided services for up to 16 clients suffering with alcohol-related brain damage, including memory disorder Korsakoff syndrome, for the past 11 years.

But residents are believed to have been moved out of the Island Road facility ahead of a long-planned closure in November.

And now it has been revealed its owners, Rod and Bobbie Tarry, have launched a bid to transform it into five terraced houses and two flats.

Planning documents lodged with the city council state: “There are 15 members of staff who will be deployed in the applicants’ other home, Elizabeth House, in Upstreet. No staff redundancies are anticipated.

“The combination of the properties’ floor space, layout and car-parking areas will ensure a high standard of accommodation for occupiers. There are no known adverse impacts arising from the development.”

The project will see the five terraced houses that formed the home restored to their original use, as two-bedroom properties.

Papers show a two-storey extension behind one of the buildings will also be converted into a pair of two-bedroom flats.

Roberta House had been ordered to improve by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors after their last visit to the site in 2019.

The watchdog found staff had failed to follow the correct processes as they did not alert CQC and Kent County Council officials when safeguarding concerns were raised, even though “managers took action to investigate” the issues.

This prompted assessors to note that “some aspects of the service were not always safe” and that “there was an increased risk that people could be harmed”.

This was despite residents telling inspectors they were happy living at the site.

A CQC spokesman said it was informed the home had closed for good on November 1.

A spokesman for Roberta House declined to comment.

‘There are no known adverse impacts arising from the development’