We are extremely proud to have driven a 76-bedroom care home planning application from due diligence stage through to permission for our long-standing client, Care UK. The care home will provide much-needed care accommodation to the elderly and vulnerable, including specialist dementia care.
Despite the Council commending the high-quality of design and acknowledging the numerous public benefits of the scheme, it wrongly refused the application on highways / parking, arboricultural and drainage grounds. On the basis of us having strong technical evidence to continue pursuing the proposal, and there being demonstrable benefits to allowing the proposal, we recommended to our client that we appeal the decision through the Secretary of State.
Ahead of the hearing, we successfully managed to resolve the drainage matter through the Statement of Common Ground. We also agreed 12 public benefits of the scheme, including: the significant need for the care home on a national and local level; economic benefits at both the operational and construction stages, through job creation and support to local businesses; the freeing-up of market housing, and contribution to the Council’s housing supply; reducing pressure on local community and health facilities; and many other matters.
Alongside the strong project team, including (but not limited to) Charles Banner KC, KWL Architects, SLR Consulting, CBA Trees, and HPC, DLBP successfully:
challenged the County Council’s position (who were acting as Highway Authority), using evidence from Care UK’s 155 operational homes to prove that the level of proposed car parking was sufficient for the nature of the proposed use, and that it complied with the Council’s policy that explicitly allowed for flexibility in parking standards; and
convinced the Inspector that the agreed public benefits of the scheme outweighed the loss of a non-designated heritage asset and trees.
We are very excited to see this care home built out, particularly given the significant need for a new fit-for-purpose care home in Stafford.
Congratulations to the entire project team!