COUNCILLORS are urged to back a 64-bed care home in York to help meet a need for its specialist facilities.

Earlier this year, leading healthcare provider Burlington Care applied to build the home on the site of the former council-owned Oak Haven care home at 144 Acomb Road.

The home, which closed in 2016, has been empty ever since, and is noted for having prominent frontage in the north east Acomb/ Holgate area overlooking a main road into the city.

Burlington said the new scheme on the 0.33ha would create 60 full-time jobs, with the demolition of a ‘no longer fit for purpose’ old home. The replacement three-storey home at 3406m2 would be twice the size of the old home, with the number of beds similarly increasing from 34 to 64.

A report for next Thursday’s meeting of the planning committee of City of York Council recommends approval, saying the scheme would provide ‘much needed elderly residential care.’

The report by council planning staff says its various departments and other public bodies had no objection to the scheme. Just two letters for and two against were also received from the public, concerning trees and parking.

They also noted the brownfield site contained a disused care home built in the 1960s, now empty, in a ‘deteriorating physical condition’ that was a ‘detractor’ from the street scene.

The old building could not be suitably refurbished, they continued, and the redevelopment on a ‘sustainable’ site close to facilities would provide for a ‘critical need.’

The report noted a doubling of the over 85 population by 2041 and 30 per cent of elderly accommodation not meeting modern standards.

The City of York had a shortfall of 514 places in 2019, due to increase to 1614 by 2019, without ‘significant investment.’

The report noted shortages in various categories in accommodation for the elderly, with existing provision in York at 98 per cent occupancy.

Planning staff also said the design had been well-developed and refined to fit in better with the surrounding area. They believed the design of the new building would ‘better respect’ the existing surroundings than the current building. There would also be ‘substantial areas of tree planting.’

Despite concerns from neighbours, the 19 parking spaces was seen as adequate and within council guidelines.

Planning staff then concluded the scheme met local and national planning policies.

They said: “The existing built footprint would be broadly followed in terms of the new construction. It is felt that the proposal would provide much needed specialist elderly residential care to part remedy existing deficiencies.

“It would provide a sensitive design solution for a visually sensitive location in street scene terms. It would make appropriate use of landscaping both for the amenity of residents and the amenity of the wider area and it seeks to minimise parking off site in the surrounding area.”