A CARE home complete with a gym, cinema and rooftop garden is being planned in the green belt near Basildon.

Buildings in Buttsbury Lodge Farm, Billericay, would be demolished to make way for the 70-bed home, which is intended to care for residents with a range of needs, including those with dementia.

The plans by Hallmark Care Homes and sister-company Savista Developments were validated by Basildon Borough Council last week and the application will now go forward for consideration by the council's planning department.

According to a design and access statement submitted alongside the application, a landscaping strategy is being used to ensure the development is sensitive, due to its proposed location in the borough's green belt.

A section read: "Although the scheme is within green belt; its proximity to the Billericay settlement boundary and its situation within the linear development of Stock Road means that it contributes to the Wooded Farmland characteristics of the local area in a limited fashion.

"Consequently, the scheme has sought to retain and enhance key boundary and street scene assets such as the hedgerows and trees; to develop a scheme that respects neighbouring amenity and the openness of the landscape beyond."

If approved, the building will be three-storeys tall plus a basement, and will be laid out in an L-shape with 37 parking spaces at the front and gardens behind and to the sides.

The basement would contain six "premium" rooms, shops, gym space, a cinema, restaurant and changing areas, as well as a "wellness suite", according to the statement.

An entrance foyer and reception, café, hair salon, dining room, offices, storerooms, day spaces and 21 en-suite bedrooms will be in the ground floor, it continues.

The first floor would be for specialist dementia facilities, including a café, hair salon, music room, library, shop and access to a rooftop dementia garden and a dining room, in addition to 25 specialised rooms.

Standard and specialist nursing care would be located in the second floor, which would also contain a garden room, clinic, dining room, storerooms, day spaces, plant room and 18 bedrooms.

According to the statement, heat pumps and solar panels mounted to the roof would be used to ensure the building has a low carbon output.