New care home for Shrewsbury approved as plans for another are withdrawn

Approval has been granted by Shropshire Council planners for a 66-bed home to be built on a site to the north of Oteley Road, which forms part of the Shrewsbury South Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE).

Around 50 to 60 jobs are expected to be created at the facility, which will provide general residential and residential dementia care.

The land was subject to a previous planning application for a Marston’s pub and hotel, which was refused by the council last year.

The approval means it will be the second care home within the SUE, with building work already underway on an 80-bed facility, Oxbow Manor, which is expected to open in 2022.

As a result, Lands Improvement Holdings (LIH), which owns the land south of Oteley Road, has submitted plans for 35 houses to be built on a nearby site next to Percy Thrower’s Garden Centre, which was allocated for a new care home in the SUE masterplan.

Granting permission for the new care home, planning officers said: “The proposal on balance, with consideration to the overall public benefits this scheme will offer to the wider community, complies with relevant policies of the local plan and [national planning policy].

“Officers consider there will clearly be economic and social benefits arising from the development, mainly attributable to the provision of improved and wider choice care facilities. These are material considerations on which basis to determine the application.”

There were three objections from neighbouring residents, who raised concerns over overlooking and loss of privacy, traffic and road safety.

The planning officers’ report concluded: “Issues in relation to public highway access and transportation, given the location for the proposed development, is considered acceptable, along with issues in relation to drainage and ecological matters. Scale and design on balance [are] also considered acceptable.

“The letters of objections from members of the public are noted. However in this instance issues as raised are considered to have been addressed satisfactory with consideration to relevant local plan policies and national planning guidance.

“Taking into consideration the material considerations… the merits of the proposal are considered acceptable with no significant adverse impacts overall.”

The decision on the Oteley Road site came within days of a separate planning application for an 87-bed care home off Shillingston Drive in Battlefield being withdrawn.

Planning approval was first granted for that development in 2012, and was renewed in 2018 after it lapsed. The latest application, submitted earlier this year by the landowner Frontier Estates, was intended to renew the permission for a second time, but the withdrawal means it has now lapsed again.

A planning statement by planing agent Nexus Planning, submitted before the 2018 permission lapsed in July, said: “The applicant, who owns the site, has been in the process of marketing the site and has garnered interest from a number of care home operators, however delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the now short lifespan of the current approval have hampered the conclusion of a land sale.

“Therefore, the proposed strategy is to renew the outline care home permission before it expires, so an extant permission remains on site.

“This will establish a robust basis upon which to progress delivery of the scheme.”

It is not clear what will now happen with the site.