Plans to bulldoze a care home in Kingston and replace it with a new 60-bed version have been blocked as it's so ugly.

The six-storey care home was previously branded an "eye-sore" by angry locals in Surbiton.

But Willow Grange Care Home owners said the new home would help them to "survive the pandemic", as they are losing £32,000 a month.

The care home on Adelaide Road would have featured a brain injury unit, and could have brought 32 new jobs to the area.

The planning application received 71 objections from residents with one saying the development is "ill-considered, poor quality" and an "eye-sore".

In planning documents, Kingston Council said: "The development's siting, footprint, combined height, width and depth and poorly resolved and repetitive design, the proposal is considered to result in a building of excessive scale and mass and a plot density that is wholly out of keeping with the pattern of development in the surrounding area.

"[It] fails to address the site context, resulting in less than substantial harm to the character and appearance of the Claremont Road Conservation Area."

It added: "The proposal is considered to provide a poor standard of internal living accommodation."

Applicant and care home owner Julien Payne told Surbiton's neighbourhood committee on July 22: "The building can't survive anymore… This new application is basically to survive the pandemic.

"I am just trying to keep my family business alive because it's losing £32,000 a month and that's not sustainable."

Last year, when the Covid-19 pandemic started, waiting lists dropped 30 per cent over night, according to Mr Payne. Before then, the care home had been "full for years."

The property, was purchased by the applicant's grandparents in 1941 as a home and later became a care home.

Mr Payne has been contacted for further comment.

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