Care home plan thrown out

A PLAN to build a dementia care unit adjoining an existing care home on Green Belt land at Warrington has been thrown out by planning chiefs.
Applicants Abbotsfield Care Ltd were given extra time to revise parking arrangements at the 60-bed Three Elms care home in Station Road, Penketh.
But even though they managed to increase the number of parking spaces from 28 to 39, members of the borough’s development management committee ruled the scheme was inappropriate in the Green Belt.
Councillors visited the site before reaching their decision.
Nearly 100 objections had been received and there was also opposition from local borough councillors, Penketh Parish Council and Warrington South MP David Mowat.
But more than 200 people made representations supporting the scheme, or raising no objections.
The development would have been 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 objected on the grounds of highways safety, Green Belt, ecology, overdevelopment of the site and lack of adequate open space
Similar objections came from local councillors Linda Dirir and David Keane while the MP expressed concern about inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
Supporters of the scheme – who include staff, residents and relatives of residents of Three Elms – claimed the existing home required the extension to be able to continue to offer the care it provides.
They said it would enable continuity of care for existing residents when extra care was needed.
The development would have offered 30 long term jobs and the design and landscaping would have been sympathetic to the existing building.