Oswestry care home plan re-submitted after refusal

Around 70 jobs could be created if the facility is approved, and the developer, Urban Village Group, says it will help to meet an identified local need for residential care beds.

The site lies between the Premier Inn and OK Diner, on Maes-Y-Clawdd Industrial Estate, and is allocated for employment use in the council’s development plan.

Refusing the previous application in September, council planning officers said the location was unsuitable for a care home due to noise from surrounding businesses.

However, a letter to the council from the developer’s planning consultant, Lambert Smith Hampton, says the applicant has “responded to and resolved” the issues raised in the refusal of the original scheme.

The new plans are largely identical, although the proposed layout of the three-storey care home has been adjusted so that bedrooms previously shown to be facing out towards Shrewsbury Road are now facing inwards towards the gardens in the centre of the site.

The letter says the site “cannot be described as being within the middle of this business park”, and that the developer would not have chosen the site for a care home had it not been deemed suitable.

It concludes: “The applicant has acknowledged the reason for refusal from the previous application and responded by providing a re-submission for a scheme for substantially the same proposals but with an enhanced design that addresses noise concerns.”

The planned care home includes a hair salon, cinema, faith room and other communal areas, while two assisted living blocks containing six apartments each would also be built on the site.

Communal gardens would be created, along with private patio areas for the ground floor bedrooms. Vehicle access to the site would be via the estate road and parking would be provided for 37 cars.

Refusing the original application, the council said: “It is recognised that the proposed development will provide substantial employment on what is an allocated employment site which will provide some economic benefit to the area.

“There will also be a social benefit by the provision of additional accommodation for the elderly.

“However, it is considered that these benefits are outweighed by the harm caused to future residents because of the noise and activity that could be generated by neighbouring land uses.”

The refusal report also said that allowing a care home to occupy the site would effectively mean the loss of dedicated land for industrial use, adding that “no evidence” had been provided to prove it was no longer suitable for its intended purpose.

The council’s public protection team said all but six of the bedrooms would be impacted by unacceptable noise levels unless windows were kept closed at all times.

However, Oswestry Town Council was supportive of the scheme, and there were no public objections.