Overview
- South Norfolk Council’s seven-member development management committee unanimously refused planning permission for the scheme proposed by LNT Care Developments.
- The plan was for a three‑storey, 66‑bed specialist residential and dementia care home on the former feather factory site next to land already approved for an Aldi supermarket.
- Councillors and Diss Town Council cited the building’s scale, overlooking of nearby homes and worry about a concentration of care facilities as core reasons for refusal.
- LNT’s agent argued there is unmet local demand for care beds, saying the project would create 50–60 jobs and represent a multi‑million pound investment, while some residents called objections discriminatory.
- The decision comes against a backdrop of a rapidly ageing local population — more than a quarter of Diss is over 65 — and raises a choice between adding private care capacity and preserving town demographic and economic balance.