A new 64-bedroom care home looks set to be built to replace Well House in Brightlingsea, which closed in 2018.

The owners of the building – Westcliff-based Essex County Care – have said in a letter to residents living near the Chestnut Way location say that the old 43-bedroom home will be demolished. The letter says that the building had "excessively high" heating and energy consumption and required more than £2m to modernise it.

When it closed, the company claimed that Essex County Council wasn't paying a realistic rate for the residents it placed there and the letter reiterates this, saying that the rate "was not sufficient to warrant further capital investment into such an aged building". The building was placed on the market in late 2020, around a year after mature trees surrounding the building were cut down, apparently to prevent subsidence.

According to the letter, the new care home will feature garden rooms, en-suite bathrooms, a café, an amenity space, tea rooms and family rooms. Parking for 28 cars is show on the plans, accessed from Chestnut Way. The illustration above is taken from the company's plans, which it says have been placed with Tendring District Council.

When Well House was closed in 2019, the company also closed homes in Colchester and Walton. In 2017 a Care Quality Commission report found Well House required improvement in four out of five categories. The company's website lists one other care home, Beechlands in Loughton, which has a "good" CQC rating.

Proposed ground floor site plan for the new home