A plan to create a large housing complex that supports older people to live independently in their own homes has been recommended for approval, despite vociferous opposition over road safety concerns.
Broadacres Housing Association’s scheme off Queen Anne’s Drive towards the south western end of Bedale would see 15 one-bedroom, 36 two-bedroom and eight studio apartments, residents lounges, a meeting room, public café, hair salon and numerous other rooms built as part of North Yorkshire County Council’s drive to increase the supply of extra care housing.
The authority views extra care developments, which provide purpose built apartments in a community setting, with access to on-site care and support services that can be tailored to the occupiers needs, as key for the county’s increasing elderly population.
Between 2015 and 2025, the number of residents aged over 85 years in the Bedale area is predicted to rise from 394 to 633 and the number predicted to be living with dementia will increase by almost 44 per cent by 2025.
A report to Hambleton District Council’s planning committee, which will consider the scheme next week, states the proposed scheme is the only one from six possible providers that meets the site’s needs and, subject to planning permission, achievable.
However, the proposals have attracted a wave of objections from residents and Bedale Town Council, who claim the development will exacerbate “a death trap” road situation created by the amount of traffic passing from a doctors’ surgery, a leisure centre, two schools and other community buildings.
A town council spokesman said it felt “the inevitable and substantial increase of vehicle traffic resulting from this planned development will cause unacceptable levels of congestion, pollution, noise and inconvenience for residents, and for staff and users of the surgery, school and leisure
centre.
He added: “The Five Lane Ends junction, which already causes alarm among drivers and pedestrians, would be even more dangerous with the increase in traffic resulting from such a development, and the inevitable increase in impatience among drivers.”
The town council added while many of the residents of the 59 flats would not
be car owners, the 28 car parking spaces proposed would be nowhere near sufficient for the number of visitors, staff and deliveries such a large facility would attract, leading to parking on pavements
It also said the complex would be out of scale to its surroundings, with the third storey “being obtrusive and architecturally unpleasant”.
In one of about 80 objections to the scheme, resident John Gatenby told planners Firby Road was a “traffic nightmare”.
He said: “You are already aware that the junction suffers from a visibility problem and that we have had in recent times one fatality. This was a person who I suspect would be of similar age and capability to the residents of the proposed development.”
The report to the committee states due to the level of road safety concern, the district council commissioned an independent assessment, which concluded the local junctions and highway network were sufficient to allow the proposals to go ahead without affected road safety and the parking provision was in excess of the need for parking on the site.
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