North Shropshire farmhouse set to become children's home

Applicants Unique Care Group requested a change of use for Ferneyhough farm, near Ellesmere, from a farmhouse dwelling to a home for the care of up to five children with special needs.

In supporting documentation submitted with the application the company, which also operates two other residential homes in the county, says the site would be used to provide long term care for children who need one to one support.

“Up to five children would live at the house, with five daytime carers, and two waking night workers, working on a rota basis,” said a supporting statement.

“The purpose of the home would be to provide a safe, warm, and nurturing environment with a high standard of accommodation and care for children and young people, ensuring an excellent delivery of service with positive outcomes.

“The aim is to transform young people’s lives and experiences and support them at a level and pace to meet their individual need due to their disabilities, to develop their personal, social, and emotional wellbeing and to guide them in all aspects of their lives in order for them to successfully transition into adult care.”

The scheme would also see ten car parking spaces created for staff use at the former farmhouse, which was put up for sale with a price tag of £1.8million in August 2022.

A report from Shropshire Council’s planning officers said the building was unlikely to be returned to agricultural use, adding that the proposed scheme would bring the former farmhouse building back into use and provide employment opportunities.

“The dwelling is a former farmhouse with the immediately adjacent traditional agricultural building having not been used for agricultural purposes for a number of years with the yard and the areas immediately outside of the U-shaped complex of barns having greened over,” it said.

“Given the size and historic form of the barns these are unlikely to be put back into any kind of intensive agricultural use as the are not suitable from modern farming practices.

“Taking into account the scale of the building, the size of its curtilage and its context it is considered to be an appropriate site for the purpose proposed.”