A controversial businessman has unveiled plans to build a “dementia village” on the site of a bowling green in Newsome.

Stewart Smith caused uproar when he bought Newsome Working Men’s Club in 2014 and swiftly turfed out the bowlers.

He secured planning permission to transform the club building into six apartments – but a dispute continues to rage over the covenant protecting the bowling green from development.

Now Mr Smith is hoping to resolve the issue with Kirklees Council – allowing him to submit detailed plans for a dementia village on the site. The council’s planning sub-committee gave outline approval for residential development in November last year.

Newsome Bowling Club, St. John's Avenue, Newsome, Huddersfield.

Mr Smith said: “I can’t see why this covenant isn’t null and void. The clubhouse is now six apartments and we are now in a situation where the site is never going to be a bowling green again.”

His ambitious plan is to transform the bowling green into a dementia village staffed around the clock and comprising 14 two-bed two-storey flats and a shop for residents with a number of the apartments at the former working men’s club providing accommodation for staff and visiting relatives.

'The development of the six apartments and the dementia village together had been costed at £1.3m.'

Residents who may be confused when handling money would use an ID card to buy goods at the shop instead of paying in cash – with their purchases paid for out of their individual accounts.

Mr Smith said it was planned to have a number of the apartments available to buy with the others available to rent.

A new road would provide access from St John’s Avenue and gas, water, electricity and telecoms would be installed.

Stuart Smith, owner of former Newsome WMC and the bowling green he is planning to remove.

Mr Smith said the development of the six apartments and the dementia village together had been costed at £1.3m.

He said he had changed his original plan to build a sheltered housing complex on the bowling green site after investigating how dementia villages worked in the Netherlands.

They include a special gated village, called Hogeweyk, in the town of Weesp designed specifically for elderly people with dementia. The village has doctors, nurses and specialists working to provide 152 residents with 24-hour care. The village has its own supermarket, streets, gardens and a park.

Mr Smith said: “After researching what’s happening in the Netherlands – and knowing some people who have dementia – we decided it is financially viable to provide a dementia village in Newsome to provide a quality of life that people may not otherwise get.”

He said he also planned to build a bigger dementia village on a 1.25-acre site currently occupied by a large detached house near Dewsbury Hospital at Staincliffe.