WORKS to repair subsidence at a West Dorset residential care home have been agreed by Dorset Council.

The owners of Broadwindsor House, Florence Lodge Healthcare, said in an application to the council for planning consent that The Orangery, which forms part of an annexe to the main building, has gradually been deteriorating and now needs repair.

Because the Clanden Hill building, a former Tudor Revival Vicarage, is Grade 2 Listed the work needed approval from the Council, with a small area of the Orangery due to be partially demolished and then replaced to allow the repair work to take place.

Said an agent acting for the business: “Subsidence has occurred to The Orangery as a result of a softening of the ground and washout of material beneath the foundation and adjacent paving owing to a collapsed sewer. The aim of the proposed work is to carry out repairs to the damage caused and reinstate the building to the condition prior to the subsidence event.”

Details show that the movement of the land has resulted in a sinkhole forming in the terrace, approximately 1.2metres deep.