A 72-bed care home is recommended for approval on the site of a disused wheelchair centre on the edge of York.

Care home builder Torsion Care seeks to demolish the historic Bluebeck House and replace it with a ‘state-of-the-art’ home, which promises to create 70 jobs.

The planning application, submitted in May, comes before the planning committee of City of York Council on Thursday.

If approved, the home would be managed by Torsion Care’s sister business Burghley Care, which specialises in operating and running care homes.

A report prepared for the meeting says the scheme would help meet a need for such care services.

The new building, mostly three storeys, would be further north of the current building and accessed off Blue Beck Drive.

The old building was erected to accommodate the laundry of the former Clifton Hospital, which closed in 1994.

It covers 1315m2, with a 97m2 outbuilding, which would be replaced by a 3789m2 building on the 0.6ha site. Parking would increase from 18 to 22 spaces.

The new home would be designed for dementia, control of covid and other infections, with a choice of day care rooms.

En-suite bedrooms would be on all floors, along with clinic space on each. In addition, each floor would have communal facilities such as garden room, dining space, hair salon, lounges, café bistro, activity room, sports lounge and terrace space.

Torsion claims a significant decline in the supply of care bed spaces in the UK in recent years. It commissioned a report on care homes in the York area, which found 595 more care home beds needed by 2023.

The York area presently has 1282 care beds, at 25 homes, but only 8 have been built since 2000, with many not having en-suites, a requirement for new-builds since 2002.

Though Rawcliffe Parish Council did not oppose the application, three letters of objection were sent to the city council, citing harm to wildlife and the loss of the Bluebeck House.

The York Civic Trust has placed the house on its draft Local List by York Civic Trust, but council officers said this has no statutory weight as it has not been through any approval process with the council.

Converting the building was considered, but this would only deliver 26 bed spaces, which would be unviable.

The proposed home was 20m from the nearest houses and through three storeys, would not overlook them, or be overbearing.

While the site is technically in the Green Belt, officers noted the new Local Plan would remove this status, as it is already developed.

Recommending approval, planning staff added its benefits would outweigh any harm from the loss of Bluebeck House. It would help fulfil “a significant need for older persons accommodation in the city”, was an appropriate use of a brownfield site and would comply with the draft Local Plan.