A CONTROVERSIAL planning application to construct a care home in Wilmslow will be discussed by Cheshire East councillors next week.

New Care Projects are seeking permission to alter plans for the 60-bed care home, to be built on Handforth Road, which was initially refused in January 2020.

However, New Care went on to win the case on appeal last August with the planning inspectorate — a decision which ward Cllr Barry Burkhill then-called ‘another kick in the teeth’.

He added: “This is an astonishing and very distressing decision taken by a planning inspector after a unanimous refusal at the northern planning committee.

“If local unanimous decisions of this importance are to be overturned by an inspector there is something very seriously wrong with the planning appeals system; the first being there is no appeal for the public against this decision.”

However, New Care CEO Chris McGoff reacted to the appeal by tweeting that it was ‘a great result’, but the process had been a ‘waste of time’ and taxpayers’ cash.

 

Now, New Care’s latest application will add three bedrooms to the proposed care home, and make some ‘minor elevation changes’ to the site.

Planning officers say the proposed landscaping and car parking ‘would remain the same as that allowed on appeal’, and have recommended CEC’s northern planning committee approve the bid.

CEC’s northern planning committee will meet online at 10am on Wednesday, January 13.