PLANS have been submitted to change the use of a former landmark York hotel into a residential care home and mental health clinic.

The proposals to City of York Council also seek to change the layout of the Beechwood Close Hotel, with its new use helping protect the Victorian villa.

The 3-star hotel on Shipton Road, Clifton, has been vacant since July 2019 and later that year was put on the market for £2million, selling in March 2021 for £1.5million.

Planning documents say the applicant, Milewood Healthcare of Ringwood, Hampshire, is a long-established provider of residential and supported living services for adults with intellectual disabilities.

The company works with councils across the North East and redeveloping the former hotel would help it improve and expand its services in the York area to meet increasing demand for such accommodation.

The vacant hotel had 14 en-suite bedrooms, plus a large ground floor restaurant with reception rooms, bar, toilets, kitchen and utility rooms.

The application sought ‘minimal changes’ to the building exterior, bar a few minor extensions to provide three more bedrooms.

It continued: “The proposals make best use of the existing floor plates and room layouts to provide a variety of rooms suitable for Care Home use, ranging from five self-contained flats to nine smaller bedrooms where the users would share communal cooking and amenity spaces.

“The existing garage store along the north-west boundary would be converted into a two-storey mental health unit, open to the public and with a reception and consultation rooms and offer short and long-term accommodation where appropriate, with seven bedrooms which extend into the proposed rear and side two storey extension.”

The application also said the proposed extension and alteration work would increase the floor area by 11 per cent, from 835m2 to 927m2 over three floors.

Some 11 FTE jobs would be created by the development.

The application further said: “The change of use to a care home is an economically viable alternative to continuation as a hotel or conversion to residential and will enable the property to be retained without major alteration.

“The scale of the building is already established and is appropriate for the proposed use. It sits comfortably on the street scene and will continue to contribute positively to the conservation area setting.”

Furthermore, local planning policies would be met in the building meeting a growing need for such care services.

The building was not ‘significant’ in architectural terms, was not listed, but had architectural 'interest.'

The application concluded the proposals would “give a new lease of life to a historic property in need of restoration without significantly altering it’s external appearance.

“The building is well suited in size, scale and layout to the proposed new uses and will require only minimal alteration work.”