Proposals to build a £4 million care home in Pudsey will this week come before planners for what’s likely to be a final time.
Developer Angela Swift Developments recently met with Crawshaw Road neighbours who had expressed widespread concerns about the development’s size and about road safety.
In January, councillors on the south and west plans panel said developers should reduce the size of the three-storey care home, which would have 86 bedrooms and create more than 80 jobs on the site of the demolished Musgrave Court Care Home.
A report recommending the plans are approved will be considered by councillors at Thursday’s south and west plans panel. It says amendments include the re-configuration of the roof to reduce the overall height:
“The majority of the third floor is therefore now within the roof space, the aim is to achieve a reduction in height without impacting on the number of bedrooms or services that the home will offer.
“Through the use of a partial flat roof element within the roof form the overall drop in the ridgeline has been 2.3m, this has also been achieved by setting the whole building 300mm lower down in the site.
“A further three stacked parking bays have also been provided for staff parking. These bays would be grass seeded (with plastic mesh reinforcement) as they are located within a landscaping area close to the access point.”
A further nine letters of objection have been received to the revised plans. Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew hasd also raised concerns and has asked for a full investigation into road access and junction issues at Radcliffe Lane
and Crawshaw Road.
Chris Holgate-Bell, of Salters Garden, expressed his disappointment over the recommendation. He said:
“Planning’s comments and recommendation for approval are again disappointing, the road issues are again glossed over and historic concerns about Radcliffe Lane/Crawshaw Road junction raised by highways now don’t even seem to warrant any concern at all.
“All very strange, and despite the fact that the proposed development is huge and set in a very tight, enclosed site surrounded by domestic dwellings and serviced by narrow roads and single width junction access that Planning think it is completely acceptable and will blend in perfectly.”
Musgrave Court was closed and declared surplus to requirements by cash-strapped Leeds City Council almost four years ago. The 36-bed home was demolished and the land sold by the council in 2016.
The council report can be read in full here.