6:50am Saturday 13th March 2010
By Chris Wickham
Delays to the construction of a new home for the Royal Star and Garter charity are costing the organisation about £30,000 a week, according to its chief executive.
Mike Barter said it was “very disappointing” that work had not yet started on the Jolly Boatman site, opposite Hampton Court Palace.
And Mr Barter – who heads up the charity, which provides residential care for disabled ex-service personnel – said although he did not want to overstate the impact, residents were being affected by the hold-ups.
He added: “I’m very fortunate that my residents, because of their backgrounds, are fairly resilient. But they are sick and tired of this constant delay.
“It’s hard on them and it’s very disappointing.
“We have a wonderful building [in Richmond] but it is completely unsuitable for the delivery of 21st century care and it is extremely expensive to operate.”
Mr Barter said the size of the building meant it was expensive to heat and a higher ratio of staff were needed per resident.
He added the charity’s new 60-bed home in Solihull gave them experience of how a modern care home should run.
In 2008, Elmbridge Council approved a scheme for a hotel, residential units, a new care home for the charity, currently based in Richmond Hill, and a refurbished building on the site.
Keith Garner, an architect from Battersea, applied to the High Court for a judicial review into the decision last year and last week judge Andrew Nicol agreed to a further hearing to decide whether the case could proceed.
But it is possible the action may not continue as Mr Justice Nicol denied Mr Garner a protective cost order which would have prevented Elmbridge Council, developer Gladedale and Network Rail from claiming costs if he was not successful at any stage. Mr Garner has to notify the court by March 31 if he plans to continue.
The application – and a delay in agreeing a section 106 agreement – has put the project back and Mr Barter said he had no idea when his charity would leave their historic Richmond Hill base.
He added: “In December 2008 it was hoped they could have implementable planning permission, get details tidied up, the final designs and costings done and then go to tender.
“If Mr Garner steps down from the challenge, we have implementable planning permission and can re-set to where we were 16 months ago, but I don’t know what he is going to do. A lot of timescale guesses are best guesses; there are other things the developers have to complete. It’s difficulty to put a timescale on it.”
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