New care home at Priors Hall set for approval

A new 66-bed care home on Priors Hall in Corby is set to be agreed on Wednesday.
A birds eye view of the care home proposal.A birds eye view of the care home proposal.
A birds eye view of the care home proposal.

Planning officers are recommending that councillors on the planning committee say yes to the application by Leeds based LNT Care Home developments to build the complex on land to the north of the ampitheatre on Kestrel Road.

Despite the scheme not being included in the masterplan for the area, planning officers say they think a care home on the site would ‘enhance vitality and promote viability of the locality/centre.’

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The facility will be three-storey and built in brick and use a ground heat source. The single bedrooms will be 16 sq m and the company says that 46 jobs will be created by the care home.

The design and access statement submitted by LNT Care Homes in May says: “The proposed development would be very much a local community facility. Residents of the home would usually be expected to emanate from an area no more than three miles from the site or be associated with families/relatives that reside within this same catchment. The majority of the new jobs created would also be expected to be filled by suitable candidates from the same local area.”

The proposal for the care home follows a cafe opening earlier this year. Plans for a supermarket and shopping units were agreed last month, with Sainsbury’s announcing last year that it would open a store on the development.

However, long mooted plans for a health care complex at Priors Hall have still not come forward.

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There may be further news on this when Corby’s clinical commissioning group outlines its new estates strategy in the coming weeks.

Eight residents have objected to the care home with one person writing:

“There is already a huge amount of traffic flow around that area, this is a stupid place to consider a care home. 22 parking spaces will not be enough, staff alone may take up most of those. The safety issues around that spot for a care home are a concern. There is nothing here but one cafe for the hundreds and hundreds of residents as it is, why on earth would you home the elderly out here with nothing for them and with no amenities?

“Why are you not putting the things you promised to do like a shop or anything that helps the residents with living and makes the area the family friendly place you keep saying it will be! Make this place the fantastic area you promised to do before even suggesting things like care homes.”

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The council’s local area plan officer has argued contrary to other planning officers and said that while the care home could meet the growing needs for elder people in North Northamptonshire ‘there is concern that the location of a care home, which is not a main town centre use, within the district centre could undermine the vitality and viability of the centre, which is intended to include facilities to meet the day-to-day needs of local residents.’

The development was begun nine years ago and like many in the area stalled in the economic downturn. The development, which is set to increase to 5,000 homes, was originally begun by Alfred Buller of BeeBee Developments but after his company ran into financial trouble it was bought in 2017 by Urban and Civic.

Last month councillors hit out at an application by Urban and Civic to reduce social housing numbers for the area. The developer had said the agreed amount of housing was unviable, but the matter has been deferred and will come back to the council for reconsideration.

There will be some social housing on Priors Hall after the local authority agreed to buy some homes on the development, but the location is not yet known.