Care home plans withdrawn amid concerns for green belt

Councillors were due to debate a second set of plans for the home at Quarry Farm in Old Milverton on Tuesday July 5.

But developer Opus Land withdrew the application after officials recommended refusing permission for the scheme.

Earlier plans from Care UK for a £7 million home were turned down in February after Warwick District Council’s planning committee decided that although there was a need for care places, the building was inappropriate in the green belt and its ‘contemporary modernist’ design would be “incongruous” in the rural setting.

The site, opposite the Warwickshire Nuffield Hospital, is currently used for commercial storage and councillors warned of the potential for noise and disturbance to residents from nearby commercial land.

The new application involved moving the proposed building further from the road than previously, with more storage land to be cleared, more car parking and better landscaping.

The building would also be made around half a meter lower, but larger overall. In its application, Opus Land argues the site cannot be regarded as open countryside, and says its scheme will improve the environment and provide jobs and places for dementia care.

Old Milverton and Blackdown joint parish council objected “strongly”, describing the scheme as inappropriate in the green belt and saying no special circumstances had been put forward to justify it.

In a report to the committee, planning officer Sandip Sahota said the “physical bulk” of the two and three--storey building would result in loss of openness and its modernist design would be out of keeping with the rural setting.

Although the new plans would give residents more gardens and open space and removes commercial storage from the area, Mr Sahota said the home would still not be part of a mixed community with easy access to facilities and services and added that an increase in parking spaces was at odds with a travel plan aiming to reduce unnecessary vehicle use.

An Opus Land representative could not be contacted when the Courier went to press.