Care home controversy

A CONTROVERSIAL plan for a 30-bed dementia care unit on Green Belt land at Warrington will be placed before planning chiefs for a second time in the New Year.
The scheme attracted nearly 100 objections from nearby residents when it was first placed on the agenda of the borough council’s development management committee.
As a result, the committee deferred the matter so members could make a site inspection.
Penketh Parish Council and Warrington South MP David Mowat have also objection to othe scheme at the existing 60-bed Three Elms care home in Station Road, Penketh.
But more than 200 people have made representations supporting the scheme, or raising no objections.
The development would be an L-shaped, two-storey hipped roof block to the west of the existing care home immediately south of the junction of Station Road and Tannery Lane.
Penketh Parish Council has objected on the grounds of highways safety, Green Belt, ecology, overdevelopment of the site and lack of adequate open space
Similar objections come from local councillors Linda Dirir and David Keane while the MP expresses concern about inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
Supporters of the scheme – who include staff, residents and relatives of residents of Three Elms – claim the existing home requires the extension to be able to continue to offer the care it provides.
They say it would enable continuity of care for existing residents while extra care was needed.
The development would offer 30 long term jobs and the design and landscaping would be sympathetic to the existing building.