East Lothian Courier | News | Bid to convert nursing home into hostel

Thursday, 20th November, 2008

Published: Thursday, 14th August, 2008 08:10

Bid to convert nursing home into hostel

THE owner of Cockenzie House Nursing Home, which closed in April despite a campaign of public protest, has applied to the council to turn the property into a hostel, offering bed and breakfast and bedsit accommodation.

Jim McDonald, who owns Cockenzie House, wants to run the hostel as a ‘temporary’ measure, for five years, pending the submission of a further application for a purpose-built nursing home.

In 2013, Mr Mcdonald aims to turn Cockenzie House into flats and build a new nursing home in the grounds of the listed building.

Alterations to the interior of the building are already underway.

If approved, around 12 rooms will be created for bed and breakfast and around 15 bedsit rooms, all en suite.

Mr McDonald said: “There will be no alteration to the fabric of the building as the accommodation has always been there.

“We can’t leave this property empty, so we decided to make the building into something that the people of the community deserve.

“It will bring good business to East Lothian as the county has got a booming tourist trade.”

There is no planned date for the new business venture to open but it will create a number of jobs for people in the community when it does, said Mr McDonald.

Cockenzie House Nursing Home was the county’s largest care facility with 70 beds.

Eighty jobs were lost with its closure, in the wake of financial problems following a ban on new admissions by the Care Commission.

The commission had been unhappy at certain aspects of the nursing home’s operation.

The council agreed to pay Mr McDonald to continue running Cockenzie House while patients were transferred to other homes.

Meanwhile, Mr McDonald has claimed that he is owed £150,000 from the local authority for keeping the nursing home open until March 31.

Councillor Willie Innes, who was involved with the campaign to keep the nursing home open, said that safeguards would be required before any future change of use of the property was granted.

He added: “There may be concern among local residents.

“It is a large building and we need to make sure that it is used properly and that there is no disturbance to local residents.”

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