Handforth care home faces planning battle
With officers recommending refusal, applicants Wrightcare Developments and Deansgate 5 will need to convince Cheshire East Council’s northern committee that its proposed site for a 76-bed facility should be classed as Grey Belt.
The project’s promoters, Wrightcare Developments – the care arm of Eric Wright Group – and Deansgate M5 want to build a residential and dementia care facility on the Knowle House site off Sagars Road, which previously housed a similar operation, prior to a fire-caused demolition in the mid-1990s.
However, the officer report ahead of the meeting on 14 January recommends refusal.
Concerns are raised relating to the relationship with a local wildlife site/priority woodland, surface water drainage and the Dobbin Brook, tree root protection areas and social relationship with trees to the south. More information is also required in relation to Biodiversity Net Gain, while design is also queried.
The conclusion is that despite meeting an identified need, this is not enough to meet the “very special circumstances” threshold required for Green Belt development.
Whether this should be classed as Green Belt or Grey Belt could ultimately be the crucial issue. It is the development team’s contention that the site is very much Grey Belt, with advisor Broadgrove’s planning statement introduction declaring:
“Considering the site represents previously developed brownfield land which contributes poorly to the purposes of the Green Belt, the site is considered to represent grey belt land.
“The site presents an opportunity for sustainable development which could contribute towards identified care needs in Handforth and Cheshire East.”
Cheshire East officers’ reading of the situation differs. The officer report sets out how the plot concerned site falls within the wider site allocation HF01, which it describes as having a “significant contribution” to the Green Belt, specifically in terms of preventing the southward sprawl of Handforth.
Although acknowledging the need for more care accommodation, other concerns are expanded upon, with the opinion offered that “the design appears to be a standard design that has been applied to the site which raises a number of issues with the layout and legibility”.
Specifically, the report notes similarities to Wrightcare’s Castlewood care home in Clitheroe.
Around 20 objectors have raised their concerns too. Among those opposed is Handforth Town Council, which registered that it “strongly objects”.
The Knowle House plot is a site with a history: two previous applications for around 20 homes have foundered, as has a bid for nursing home. Other proposals have been withdrawn. The most recent housing refusal came in 2021, with the applicant going on to lose at appeal.
Broadgrove Planning & Development and architect Cassidy + Ashton lead the professional team, which also includes TEL Landscape Architects, WLG, Red Acoustics, Mode Transport and E3P.
Project documents can be viewed on CEC’s planning portal with the reference 25/2053/FUL.
Looks like a fantastic scheme, care for the elderly is so important!
By Janice Hughes
Hope it gets approved – the Wrightcare home in Clitheroe looks high quality and Cheshire East Council should be supporting developments like this
By Anonymous
Knowle Park is a derelict site and been empty area for many years..looks good but boring Cheshire will knock it back..so what else could they build there that would get approved???
By Patrick
Cheshire East planning are notoriously awkward to please. A development of this type is entirely appropriate and ultimately preferable to more housing. Keep plugging away developer, and CEC have the balls but zero money
By Anonymous
There’s nearly a million people with dementia in the UK with it anticipated to increase.Many are looked after by families due to the lack of adequate facilities.Reading this and some of the resons given by the planning officer to refuse makes me hold my head in my hands. Whats wrong with a standard design, it gives greater cost certainty, issues have been ironed out, it can be built quicker and probably makes it more commercially viable and gets it operating sooner. Its a brownfield site!
By Alf
Didn’t there used to be a care home on the site before – not sure how it can be classed as greenbelt if that is the case??
By Phil Ingham
Cheshire East has given an extension of time on this application.
By Anonymous