More than 25 dementia patients may be forced to move if plans to turn a care home into apartments are successful.

The Vale Care Home, in Willington Street, Maidstone, looks after patients living with the brain condition.

The 24-bedroom, three-floor property has been a care home for more than 25 years and looks after 26 residents.

However, a proposal has been drawn up to convert the 1,500 sq m site into 11 residential flats after it was deemed no longer viable due to the configuration of the building, modern care practices and the associated costs of running it.

Should the proposal be approved, owner Charing Healthcare has stated it would move patients to another of its branches with a “smooth transition”.

A spokesman explained: “After looking at the possible options to keep The Vale with its current usage, we believe the only viable option for the property would be to convert the building into flats.

“Should the development go ahead, Charing Healthcare would work with all our stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition for residents to move into other care homes and would allow ample time for this to happen.

“If Charing Healthcare believed there was a viable way to convert or rebuild the property, then that would be the first approach taken like we have demonstrated for 25 years with our existing care and nursing homes.”

It added many residents referred to the home had mobility issues but the building has a limited number of rooms with step-free access.

The Vale has a passenger lift and four chair lifts, although the former only serves part of the ground floor and part of the first floor.

Charing Healthcare has looked at converting the building to try to make it more user-friendly, however it says this is not possible as it would need to be brought up to current standards of much larger bedrooms, en-suites and step-free access.

Such renovations would also require the property to likely have a maximum of 15 en-suite bedrooms, which, if achieved, would mean the home could not transfer its existing patients to a different part of the home.

Pre-application given to the application’s agent, Robinson Escott Planning, has said nine, rather than 11, may be a more appropriate number of potential apartments.

However if successful, the 11 flats would be made up of six one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom flats and one apartment having three bedrooms. Changes would see two minor first floor extensions and an additional domer enlargement, plus the number of parking spaces increased from eight to 13.

You can view the application at tinyurl.com/planningkm and searching for the reference 23/503025/FULL.

Dementia is an umbrella term for the loss of mempry, language, problem-solving and other thinking abilities which are severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia.