Outline planning permission has been granted for a new, purpose-built 80-bed care home on the outskirts of Hereford.

The development will help to address the significant shortfall in specialist care accommodation across the county, offering high-quality facilities and a modern environment designed specifically to meet the needs of older residents.

The two-storey care home will be surrounded by landscaped communal gardens and designed to promote active lifestyles, relaxation, and wellbeing.

A wide range of facilities designed to enhance residents’ comfort, wellbeing, and daily experience include a variety of day spaces such as a cinema and library, a hair and nail salon, and spacious ensuite bedrooms, some of which on the ground floor will provide direct access to secure, landscaped gardens.

Ancillary areas such as staff facilities, offices, and centrally-located nursing stations and treatment rooms will further support efficient, high-quality care.

Steve Bourne, technical director at Muller Property Group, said: “This project is a key step in meeting both local and national objectives for elderly care and it underscores the value of strategic, sustainable development in areas of acute need.”

Hereford has a growing elderly population, with a sharp rise in those aged 85 and over, alongside increasing prevalence of dementia and a large number of older people living alone or in poor health.

With many of the county’s care homes in older, repurposed buildings, often small in scale, there is an urgent need for modern facilities that can provide high-quality care at the scale needed.