Old fire service headquarters to be turned into rehab centre for drug addicts with cinema, massage rooms and hot tub

Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service's old headquarters in Arnold will be demolished to make way for a drug rehab facility - if plans submitted to Gedling Borough Council are approved. Delamere Health, which currently has one rehabilitation clinic in Cheshire, wants to make the Nottinghamshire site, on Bestwood Lodge Drive, its second location.

Describing the location as an "excellent setting", the clinic would consist of 32 residential bedrooms. Outside, there will be multiple gardens in which patients can walk, unwind and relax, among 229 trees which are set to be planted.

A lower ground floor plan document shows that facilities would include a gym, a games and leisure room with a pool table and a ping pong table, a spa with a hot tub, sauna, ice baths and a steam room, yoga room and massage rooms. On the floor above would be the private bedrooms, with a reading room, canteen and kitchen as well as a nurse room and an exam room.

A similar layout would be employed above on the first floor, with more bedrooms, a boardroom, reading room, therapy rooms and other offices including one for a manager.

Outside, a "therapy garden" will be situated off the group therapy rooms and is "intended to provide a sense of calm" for those looking at it. An area of lawn will provide long views onto a south field and organic plants will be provide a natural curtain for privacy.

A woodland dining terrace, adjacent to the canteen, will promote "community and shared experience", allowing patients and staff to eat together and play games. A kitchen garden, situated alongside the medical centre, will provide vegetables and cut flowers for recreational workshops, and a greenhouse for cultivation all year round.

A "resilience garden" with winding paths through plants and small pools will also contain a "sculptural shelter" at its centre where guests can gather in all weathers. And a secret garden, densely planted with hardy exotics, will allow guests privacy and time out from therapy.

A transport assessment describes the proposed facility as being for "quasi-residential use, operating in a low-key manner, with limited on-site activity and generating few vehicular movements on a daily basis". A total of 30 parking spaces with capacity for overflow will be provided.

The nearest bulk of residential properties are situation on Cairngorm Drive and Chiltern Close at the top of Top Valley, but these are divided from the site by a sizeable strip of woodland. The three-star Bestwood Lodge hotel and wedding venue sits opposite the premises, behind the Bestwood Lodge Stables private property.

Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service moved out of the old premises in 2022 to move into a new station shared with Nottinghamshire Police at Sherwood Lodge, a few miles north of the previous location.