Boundary Cottage in Grindstone Crescent and 57 Robin Hood Road have been bought by private mental healthcare company Comfort Care. Both properties are being refurbished with the aim of moving six long-term patients, mostly from The Meadows’ 24-bedroom home, which has 13 clients remaining.

Villagers only caught wind of the move via Holy Trinity Church’s vicar, Nick Crew, after a Grindstone Crescent resident asked about the building work going on.

As we understand it they were originally from The Brookwood Hospital and were transferred to The Meadows, a purpose built facility, to cater for the specific needs of people with long term mental health issues. They have received specialist support provided by highly trained and skilled practitioners on site 24 hours a day for the last 20 years. They have been supported in every aspect of their lives. They are likely to have become institutionalised.

We are worried that The Meadows residents:

• will be adversely affected by the move leading to unpredictable behaviour;

• will not be adequately supervised to mange the ‘independent life’ they are supposed to be moving to;

• will not receive the appropriate care to ensure they take any required medication. We understand some patients likely to move to Boundary Cottage suffer from schizophrenia and have psychotic personalities with histories of violence.

• will not behave in an appropriate manner according to societies rules and that the minimal support provided will not be able or experienced enough to guide them in their day to day living or ensure appropriate behaviour;

• will be adversely affected by the introduction of 3 unknown patients with challenging behaviour, to Boundary Cottage, from other sites, and other new residents as time goes on.

We have been contacted by a distraught resident in Maybury Hill who is living near ‘Newlands’, allegedly a Comfort Care facility similar to those proposed in Grindstone Crescent and Robin Hood Road. They stated that, similar to our situation, no consultation was held before the residential property was changed to accommodate people with mental illnesses, and the first they knew about it was after people had moved in. They advised us that their lives have been made a living hell since this facility opened. They state that residents run amok, making noise at all hours of the day and night, banging drums at 4am, sitting out the front of the house dressed only in their boxer shorts, smoking and drinking and being abusive.

They said a registered paedophile is living at the facility which is next door to houses with children. One of the residents of the facility reportedly climbed over the fence and regularly stole underwear from the washing line. When the police investigated they discovered large quantities of stolen pairs of knickers and bras, including knickers of a 2 year old girl. They said the police are called out frequently in response to anti-social behaviour and other issues.

The support staff are apparently ill-trained and completely unable to deal with this extreme behaviour and it is believed that residents of ‘Newlands’ are not taking the medications they require. There is also the possibility that some of these ‘Newlands’ residents are due to be transferred elsewhere, and we are concerned they may be heading to Grindstone Crescent.

We believe the effect on these neighbourhoods has not been adequately considered. The NHS state that risk assessments have been conducted for the individuals from The Meadows but no such risk assessments have been carried out on the 2 neighbourhoods, or on the individuals within each area.

We request that the calndestine move of patients to these patently unsuitable facilities be halted.

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