Plans to extend Linear Park care home in Newton-le-Willows

The proposals, which sought permission to create an extra 12 bedrooms at Linear Park Care Home in Newton-le-Willows have been granted approval.

The extension will take the number of resident places from 31 to 43.

Plans also seek to convert two bedrooms to offices and create an extended lounge.

Previous plans for an extension t the home on Bradlegh Road were withdrawn earlier this year, with new plans drawn up taking on board comments over potential loss of trees and the size of the previously proposed development.

A design and access statement in the plans said: "The revised proposal has been significantly redesigned, while still ensuring the scheme meets the practical requirements necessary for the safe running of the care home, to further consider the positing of the extension and impact on the site’s trees".

The application stated that a planning application for a front extension was withdrawn in November 2019. Also another application, submitted in March for 16 extra bedrooms, with two to be converted to offices, was also withdrawn following "concerns raised over the size of the development, its proximity to the boundaries and the loss of the trees".

READ > Plans for Domino's Pizza takeaway within '400m exclusion zone' near to schools

The design and access statement in the new plans also stated that prior to the withdrawal of the previous application in June an amended proposal had been submitted to the planning department. However, feedback correspondence had acknowledged that the loss of the trees was inevitable with development in this area".

The plans added: "Taking on board the feedback from the planning department a new scheme has been designed.

"Given the layout of the care home there remains only one area to link the new addition without compromising the existing bedrooms. Therefore, as with the previous scheme, the new addition extends from the lounge.

"In both cases this allows for the introduction of a divider between the existing and new lounges, enabling the new addition to be separated from the main body of the building while ensuring both sections retain a recreation space".

They added: "While such details were a practical consideration when the previous proposal was designed, the need to be able to quarantine sections of a care home has now become a pertinent issue.

"Following the reduction in new bedroom numbers to reduce the size of the extension in the design forwarded to the planning department on June 10, 2020, this design also reduces the number of new bedrooms by four. The extension now includes 12 new ensuite bedrooms".

The application also stated: "By revisiting the design for an extension to accommodate fewer bedrooms it has been possible to substantially reduce the footprint of the addition.

"Acknowledging comments made during the previous application process, every effort has been made to pull the extension further away from the boundaries".