McGoff’s plans for Wilmslow dementia care paused
Cheshire East councillors voted to defer deciding on the developer’s 66-bed care home off Alderley Road, questioning the validity of the application’s needs assessment.
Planning officers had recommended the McGoff Group Properties’ scheme for approval, stating that it would help address a growing need in the area.
However councillors were not convinced and were worried that the scheme represented over development in the vicinity. Cllr Stewart Gardiner led the charge for the deferral, noting that he did not trust the needs report included in McGoff’s application. Gardiner argued that a decision could not be made on the application until it was cleared up on whether or not there was need in that area.
Other councillors also expressed concerns over the building’s height, its parking provision, and its internal layout – specifically the absence of spaces designed for couples where one has dementia and the other does not.
Cheshire East will deliberate on the application, with an updated needs assessment, on a later date.
McGoff’s application would have seen the demolition of the builder’s merchant and car wash that currently occupy the nearly one-acre site in Wilmslow.
In its stead, McGoff would build a C Squared-designed care home with dementia provision – one that would create 65 full-time and 20 part-time jobs when operational.
Each of the 66 bedrooms would have full en-suite wet rooms, a key element for helping care for those with dementia. There is a shortfall of 774 beds with this requirement in the Cheshire East area, according to the planning statement submitted by Garner Town Planning.
There would be 30 parking spaces including one for ambulance drop off, three accessible spaces, four electric vehicle charging spaces.
In addition to C Squared and Garner Town Planning, the project team includes ACA, Carterwood Planning, Cheshire Woodland, Colour Green, E3P, HBL, Leigh Ecology, Net Zero, SCP Transport, and WSP.
To learn more about the project, search application reference number 24/4391/FUL on Cheshire East Council’s planning portal.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that there’s clearly an acute need for all types of housing, particularly older people’s housing due to an ageing population! What utter nonsense once more by a Committee of unqualified ‘experts’ who appear to know better than professional planners and Officers. Shambles.
By Anonymous