A 20-bed extension at the Casterbridge Manor care home in Cerne Abbas is being recommended for approval – although parish councillors have objected.

Dorset councillors will consider the application next week (Nov 30).

It comes to them after the parish council raised concerns about the density of the development, the impact on the existing care home, a listed building, and questioned the need for the extra beds which they said might put additional pressure on local GPs.

The new building is proposed for the rear of the existing home.

Owners Avatara Inc Ltd say if approved the extension will increase the capacity of the home from 61 to 81 bed spaces and almost double the floor space of the complex. It will also offer work for an additional 20 full-time staff bringing staff numbers to 100 full-time and eight part time.

The application includes an additional 36 parking spaces, four designated for disabled drivers.

The company says the proposed linked building will offer extra care accommodation and has been designed for minimum impact on the countryside site just outside the village off the A352, facing the Cerne Abbas Giant carved into the hillside opposite.

It has produced an ecological survey to support the application and says that external lighting will be low level and minimal with 'green roofs' on the extension to help blend into the landscape, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

"The proposed two storey accommodation will be subservient in scale to the existing building. The ridge height will be lower than the existing care home. The forms are broken up to reduce the bulk and massing on site and to avoid one continuous solid form, it also creates further gaps to retain visual landscape links. The proposed green roofs and timber cladding will help reduce the visual impact of the new building and help blend the building into the landscape," said a report to the council by Western Design Architects.

The architects say a cross-shape building has been chosen to match the existing care home, once the village workhouse constructed in the 1830s.

Planning officers are recommending the northern area committee approve the scheme.

A report to the committee by planning officers concludes: "The proposed extension is sensitive to its setting, the existing Grade II listed building on site, Scheduled Monument, AONB and Conservation Area. It is considered that the proposed extension is high quality in design and will result in an attractive and sympathetic addition to the existing care home building…Overall, the benefits of allowing the proposal are considered to outweigh the harm caused by allowing an extension to an existing building in the countryside."