Plan to demolish part of 'outdated' care home is approved on appeal

In June last year, Shropshire Council’s planning department had refused permission to demolish the historic northern wing of Bicton Heath House care home, which applicants Minster Care said was outdated and “did not meet current standards”.

The plans to replace the 19th century former country villa with a modern-looking 30-bedroom building were rejected due to planners’ concerns about over-development of the site and insufficient levels of outdoor space for residents.

A resubmitted “fallback” scheme with altered designs, which the applicant said would reduce the scale and massing of the new building, was then approved in February this year.

Now, following an appeal, the original scheme can now go ahead, after the Government planning inspectorate concluded that the later development which gained approval this year was so similar to the original plans that the council’s earlier decision was effectively invalid.

“Whilst I recognise that each proposal has to be considered on its own individual planning merits, the council has previously accepted a redevelopment scheme at the site which has a very similar footprint, scale and mass to the appeal proposal before me,” said inspector Stephen Normington.

“In these circumstances, I have no other substantive evidence to suggest that there are material considerations in the appeal proposal which would result in a cramped form of development beyond that which the council has found acceptable in the 2024 permission.

“In my view, the appeal site is sufficiently large to accommodate a building of the scale and mass of the appeal proposal without the development appearing cramped.”

He said he accepted Minster Care’s argument that improved indoor social areas provided by the development would mitigate the 6 per cent loss in outdoor amenity space.

“On balance, I am of the view that the amount of amenity space proposed would provide adequate living conditions for future residents and would represent a considerable improvement in the quality of such space beyond the current situation,” he added.

“The proposal would result in the complete loss of the special interest of the non-designated heritage asset. However, the submitted Heritage Statement assesses the heritage significance of the building as low.”

A partial award for appeal costs was also awarded against Shropshire Council.