A FORMER council-run care home for the elderly is set to be demolished and the site redeveloped with housing.
A planning application is "imminent" for the disused Homefield House to be replaced with a "10-unit residential scheme" by CCURV, the council's partnership with developer John Laing to redevelop key sites in the borough.
Councillor Steve O'Connell, the council's cabinet member for finance and performance management, revealed the plans in written answers presented at last week's full council meeting.
The home, in Homefield Road, Old Coulsdon, was closed by the council in 2010 in order to save the authority around £600,000 a year, and has been boarded up ever since.
It is not clear what sort of residential "units" would take its place and a council spokesman could provide no further details.
Ward councillor Chris Wright said he hoped some funding for the elderly in the area would be secured out of any planning deal.
He said: "What I am very interested in is making sure that the elderly people benefit from any development along those lines.
"What that will be and whether it will work out, we do not know yet. The main thing is to secure some sort of contribution from the developers, which will be of benefit for elderly people.
"We will have to wait and find out what the amount will be, and then we can have talks locally with associations and residents to see if that sort of money would be useful for them."
He added that he did not foresee the number of new homes posing problems, and that the building was looking "extremely tired".
He added: "It has been relatively clear of graffiti which I think says volumes for the local residents – the last thing we wanted was lots of graffiti."
Brian Udell, chairman of the Old Coulsdon Residents' Association, said he would welcome the land being brought back into use.
The home's closure in 2010 met with fierce opposition from its 15 permanent residents, who were moved out, and their relatives.
The Advertiser reported at the time it would have cost £1.8million to bring the 38-year-old home up to modern standards, and that only 15 of the 35 rooms were occupied permanently.
The paper also reported how the council said it would be prepared to sell the premises to a private operator for continued use as a facility for the elderly.
