Officers backed a 76-bed care home on Oriental Road, next to the Grade I listed Shah Jahan Mosque. The register still records no decision six days on.

A two-storey 1970s office block on Oriental Road would be knocked down and replaced with a three-storey, 76-bed care home for older people under plans that went before Woking Borough Council’s planning committee on 1 September. Officers recommended that permission be granted.

The council’s own planning register still records no decision, six days later. Its “decision made date” field for the application is blank (Woking Borough Council planning register, PLAN/2026/0064). Permission for a scheme of this kind cannot be issued until a section 106 agreement is signed, and the officer recommendation was conditional on one.

What is proposed

The site is Lion House at 147 Oriental Road, GU22 8AP, in Mount Hermon ward, next to Lion Retail Park. The application, PLAN/2026/0064, was validated on 10 February. The officer report to committee sets out:

  • 76 bed spaces in a three-storey building, with the top floor in the roof space
  • 74 en-suite rooms, providing residential and dementia care for older people
  • lounges, an activity room, a hobby room and a hairdressers
  • communal gardens and landscaping to the rear
  • 30 parking spaces, including 2 accessible spaces
  • a minimum of 15 electric vehicle charging points

The building would be taller than the existing one, with a larger footprint. The applicant’s planning statement says the home “will provide 24-hour care for elderly and infirm residents with limited mobility, also suffering from conditions such as dementia” (Woking Borough Council committee report, PLAN/2026/0064, 1 September 2026).

The office block already has permission to become flats

This is the part that changes how the application reads. Lion House does not need this scheme to stop being an office. It already has consent to become housing.

Three planning applications for Lion House, Oriental Road: a 76-bed care home validated 10 February 2026 with no decision recorded; 23 flats permitted under a Class MA prior approval on 10 February 2026 and valid until 10 February 2029; and 25 flats refused on 19 November 2025

A prior approval under Class MA, reference PLAN/2025/0969, granted the change of use of the building to 23 flats on 10 February 2026. It has not been implemented, but it does not expire until 10 February 2029. An earlier application for 25 flats at the same building was refused on 19 November 2025.

Officers treated that live consent as material. The report notes the applicant’s argument that the office use “could be lost under permitted development rights under a Class MA prior approval”, and that the 2029 expiry gives them time to do it.

Losing an office was the first hurdle

Council policy safeguards employment land, so officers had to justify losing an office building. Their reasoning:

  • The site is not in one of the borough’s safeguarded employment areas.
  • The council’s Employment Land Review of 2010 already flagged Lion House as an “office building nearing the end of its useful life” and suggested “consideration for release”. The report notes the building does not appear to have been refurbished in the 16 years since.
  • Modern occupiers expect concierge reception, gym, cafe and outside seating, and there is a supply of recently refurbished office space to let in the town centre.
  • The listed buildings next door limit what could be built as prime offices.
  • The applicant says the care home would create roughly 70 to 75 full-time equivalent jobs in nursing and care, administration, housekeeping and maintenance.

Next door to a Grade I listed mosque

Lion House sits immediately south of the Shah Jahan Mosque site, which contains the Grade I listed mosque itself, the Grade II listed Salar Jung Memorial Hall and the Grade II listed entrance gate piers.

The council’s conservation consultant was unsparing about what is there now. “The current office building is a dismal standard office design of the 1970’s which is now tired looking,” the consultant told the council. The replacement was judged “domestic in scale and form and a much better neighbour to the Mosque complex”.

The consultant attached a condition of their own to that view. The landscaping and tree planting along the boundary with the mosque site will be “critical in preserving the setting”, should be shown on plan rather than left to a condition, and may need “semi-mature trees and shrubs provided here to a very high standard”.

Officers concluded the scheme would cause less than substantial harm to the significance of the listed buildings, and that no important views towards them would be lost. The submitted arboricultural report says no trees on the mosque boundary would be removed.

Historic England was consulted and declined to comment, saying it “provides advice when our engagement can add most value” and that in this case it was not offering advice.

Three objections, and what they said

Three letters of objection were received, and one of support. The objections centred on traffic and parking:

  • Lion Retail Park is busy, and combined with the mosque, “the general traffic volumes and parking issues at this end of Oriental Road is sometimes horrendous”
  • surrounding roads are at or near capacity in peak hours
  • demand for parking would “routinely and significantly exceed the 30 spaces provided”
  • one objector could not see why another care home is needed in Woking

The parking numbers are worth setting out, because they are tighter than they look. The council’s own maximum standard for 76 bedrooms is 38 spaces. The scheme proposes 30. The applicant’s transport statement puts maximum demand at 30 spaces in the early afternoon, and parking surveys at three of the operator’s existing homes suggest 27 would do. Officers expect 25 to 30 staff on site at any one time at or near full occupancy. Parking in Lion Retail Park is restricted, and Oriental Road has single and double yellow lines.

Cycle parking is the one place officers pushed back. Ten spaces were proposed with no justification for the figure. Surrey County Council as highway authority asked for 25, and a condition is recommended to secure them.

Is another care home needed?

The council does not have a current answer. Its most recent Strategic Housing Market Assessment dates from 2015 and identified a need for 911 to 924 specialist homes for older people between 2013 and 2033.

The applicant did not submit a needs assessment with this application. Officers accepted evidence from other schemes instead, including a 2021 planning appeal decision and Surrey County Council’s Older People’s Residential and Nursing Care Market Positioning Statement of October 2024.

The council has allocated one site, Broadoaks, for this kind of accommodation. Otherwise, the report says, its “main approach is to meet need through in-principle support of schemes such as this as and when they come forward”.

The scheme pays no CIL

Because a care home falls in Use Class C2, the development attracts a nil Community Infrastructure Levy charge and would make no CIL contribution.

Nor would it pay towards the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. Officers concluded that because the layout is a conventional care home with en-suite bedrooms and shared facilities, and residents “would not be mobile and would not drive”, the usual mitigation contribution is not required.

The site would deliver its biodiversity net gain on site. The submitted assessment puts the gain at 326.77% of habitat units against a statutory minimum of 10%, from a baseline of 0.27 habitat units, through rain gardens, wildflower mix, grassland, tree planting and native hedgerow. It would be secured through the section 106 agreement.

What it means for you

Nothing is built yet, and nothing is permitted yet. The register shows the committee date of 1 September and no decision. Check the application yourself on the council’s planning portal, where the officer report and all the plans are published in full.

If the care home does not happen, the flats can. The Class MA consent for 23 flats runs to 10 February 2029 and needs no further permission to be implemented.

If you live nearby, the traffic case is now on record. The transport evidence, the 30-space provision against a 38-space standard, and the highway authority’s demand for 25 cycle spaces are all in the committee report, which is the document to quote if conditions are not met later.

One thing we could not confirm today is what the committee actually resolved on 1 September. The council’s committee website blocks automated access, and the planning register, which is the council’s own record of decisions, still shows none. We will update this page when a decision is issued. Our running coverage of borough applications is on the Woking planning news page, and current applications are listed on our Woking planning applications page.

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