A MAJOR investment into specialist housing for people with sensory impairments has got the go ahead in York.

City of York councillors approved the Wilberforce Trust’s plan to build 30 new flats on land it owns off Tadcaster Road, next to St Leonard’s Hospice.

The York-based charity currently has properties across the city which it runs as shared houses for people with sensory impairments and other disabilities, but those properties are not up to modern standards and trust chief executive Phillipa Crowther said they are increasingly hard to adapt

“Current housing is not purpose built and over the last 14 years, despite regular investment by ourselves and City of York Council in continued adaptations, they present numerous challenges.”

Instead, the trust wants to build 30 state-of-the-art new flats which would help people live independently.

Ms Crowther told a planning meeting on Thursday that some tenants are ageing rapidly, while for others shared housing makes them more dependent on support workers.

A report for the committee also said the trust’s current arrangements do not meet government standards to promote independent living and meet people’s care needs.

Ms Crowther said the new flats would improve this, and being built close to St Leonard’s Hospice would come with facilities including a sensory garden and cafe that would be shared with the hospice.

Planning committee members praised the proposals, saying they would benefit both the trust and the city, but questioned whether conditions should be imposed on the timings of building work and deliveries.

Although Cllr Tony Richardson initially asked for tighter controls on when deliveries could be made, the committee removed that requirement entirely with Cllr John Galvin saying: “There are no conditions on when people can deliver to my house or your house.”

Committee chairman Ann Reid, whose Dringhouses ward covers the area, said people in the area had been worried by the chance the land could be used for market housing, but seemed generally supportive of the Wilberforce Trust’s plans.