A proposal to extend a care home in Peckham and build a new dementia day care centre is going to a planning committee on Wednesday (January 8).  

Southwark Council is proposing to build an extra 50 specialist care flats at Tayo Situ House in Commercial Way, which provides care for older people and those with mental health needs.  

The centre, named after the late councillor and Mayor Tayo Situ, opened in 2016 with 42 self-contained flats.  

The new plans include a dementia day centre, a courtyard, as well as a community hub for residents and their families.  

The proposed four-storey building would be built on an adjacent empty plot, previously the site of a business centre.  

“It is recommended that the proposal is supported as it would provide a purpose-built community facility and affordable extra care housing for which there is an identified need.  

“It is of a good design and residential quality, and despite the limited incidents of harm identified would have an acceptable impact on neighbour amenity,” according to planning documents.  

The accommodation would be socially rented.  

Five residents in the area have objected to the plans over loss of daylight and the size of the development.  

But planning officers said neighbours experience “particularly high levels of daylight” because the site is vacant and once the development is built, would experience light levels “in line with a built-up urban area”.  

“There would be noticeable reductions in daylight for a number of windows and rooms for a small number of properties located to the east and west of the site on East Surrey Grove and Cator Street.

“These rooms would in some cases experience low levels of daylight following the implementation of the proposed development.  

“Some of the impacts on these properties would be noticeable but on the whole these properties would continue to experience levels of access to daylight and sunlight that are in line with a built-up urban area,” according to officers.  

Tayo Situ House was rated ‘requires improvement’ overall in its latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in May, but ‘good’ for how it cares for residents.   

The decision on its expansion will be made on Wednesday evening.