Our Proposals
Churchill’s vision is for a sensitively designed high-quality apartment building of 45x one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments and 6x two storey cottages.
The proposal includes 15 unallocated parking spaces for the apartments in addition to parking for electric mobility buggies. The cottages each has an allocated parking space.
Residents will benefit from a communal Owner’s Lounge and coffee bar to promote social interaction and provide a space for events and gatherings.
All developments by Churchill Living provide high quality landscape amenity gardens, designed for passive exercise and the visual enjoyment of residents over 60 years of age, rather than active recreational uses. Planting is considered for longevity, colour all year, seasonal change, maintenance and local native biodiversity. Churchill Living have won awards for excellence for their landscaped gardens.
Parking
The proposal includes 15 unallocated parking spaces for the apartments in addition to parking for electric mobility buggies. The cottages each has an allocated parking space.
The typical age profile of those currently living at a Churchill Retirement community is an 80-year old widow. Generally, 50% of residents also come from within a 5-mile radius of the location.
Given the above, residents of Churchill communities tend to not have cars. It is also generally found that those who do initially have cars tend to give them up soon after moving into a lodge as they no longer need it given the sustainable location and neighbourly living environment.
As retirement living is a very different operational use than residential or care home developments, Churchill has developed an evidence base across several existing Churchill developments. This concludes that Churchill’s existing sites typically have a parking demand of 0.28 spaces per apartment.
As such, the parking demand forecast for the 45 apartments proposed will be approximately 12.6 parking spaces. Churchill is proposing 15 parking spaces to cater for the apartments, at a ratio of 0.33 spaces per apartment, which is likely to exceed the need for parking at any given time.
Need for Retirement Living
The ONS data for New Forest (including National Park) shows that the population comprises of 29.4% of people aged 65 and over, with Hythe Parish itself being higher than this at 34.5% over 65.
In terms of future projections, ONS data finds in England as a whole, there is projected to increase from 18.2% to 20.7% of the total population between mid-2018 and mid-2028 of over 65’s. For New Forest, the projection is an increase of 37.4% of over 65’s over the next 25 years.
For the New Forest, the 2018-based Subnational Population Projections identifies that an increase in population for the over 60’s being 12,860 homes between 2018 and 2030, equating to 16.68% increase across this period in the population for over 60’s.
The Demographic Projections report (July 2017) produced in support of the Local Plan Part 1 found up to 2035, finds an additional need for market sheltered housing of 2,670 units.