A YORK childminder seeks to turn his home-based business into a ‘childcare on domestic premises’ operation.

Peter Hale of York Road, Acomb, says the move will allow him to increase capacity to a maximum of 12 children at any one time. Staffing will increase from 2 full-time equivalents to four.

His application to City of York Council says the 260m2 site has operated as business premises for 38 years as Varney Photographers and a doctors’ surgery for at least ten years before this.

The premises received planning approval to be classed as residential in 2019, becoming a home in 2020. Other businesses operate nearby.

The planning application continued: “The rooms where childcare would take place comfortably exceed the space requirements per child set out in the Department for Education’s Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Our application is exclusively for pre-school aged children (0-5) and offers funded places in conjunction with the local Authority. Childcare is in extremely short supply locally.”

It added the design of and access to the property would not change. More than half of current parents live close to the site and drop off and pick-up children. The others come and go at staggered times, meaning there would be “significantly less vehicle activity” compared to previous business use.