By John Baron
Fresh plans to demolish a residential home in Farsley have been given the green light by Leeds City Council.
The council closed the former Richmond House care home last year in a bid to save money and are looking to build some form of local authority housing in its place.
However, plans to demolish the existing buildings were initially withdrawn in September following a delay with a bat survey before being resubmitted earlier this month.
A council report approving the demolition states: “The building that is proposed to be demolished was built in the early 1970s and is generally in good condition. However cuts to council budgets in recent years resulted in the closure of the care home as elderly care is increasingly outsourced to private providers, and an options appraisal was unable to identify an alternative use.
“Holding the building in a vacant state pending a suitable use is unviable due to the ongoing costs of security / maintenance and the risk of anti-social behaviour.
“The only consideration in this instance is therefore whether the method of demolition is appropriate. It is considered that based on the submitted information, the proposed methods of demolition and site restoration are considered acceptable.”
Contractors plan to manually soft strip the inside of the building, which dates back to 1971. The demolition of the main building would be carried out in a controlled manner.
The demolition plans can be viewed in full here.
Richmond House was a 20-bed residential service in Richmond Road, Farsley. It offered short-term care and support to people who require convalescence following a hospital admission. Council officers last year said average occupancy since 2018/19 was 55 per cent and its gross budget was £742,000..
Follow WLD‘s ongoing coverage of Richmond House closure here.
West Leeds Dispatch‘s Cutswatch series has been following council cuts here.
