Objections to care home in Worcester

A controversial plan to build a new care home next to one of the city’s busiest routes has received a wave of objections from neighbours.

Arden Croft has put forward plans which would see a new 61-bed care home built on land next to the listed Heron Lodge off the often-congested London Road in Worcester.

More than 40 objections have been made against the plan with many worried that building a 61-bed care home next to a busy city gateway would add to traffic problems and cause accidents.

One objection said: “Access to and from the Heron Lodge estate is already difficult. The proposed development would add considerable traffic turning in and out of the drive onto the busy London Road and would add congestion which would make the footway unsafe for pedestrians, including schoolchildren and cyclists.”

The plan was scrapped in March last year after an outcry from neighbours but was then resubmitted to Worcester City Council later in the year.

Neighbours said the wildlife-filled green space would be destroyed if the care home is allowed to be built.

The city council’s planning committee was expected to make a decision on the plan last February but it was withdrawn from the agenda at the last minute and then scrapped altogether.

Council planning officers had recommended the plan should be rejected ahead of the meeting.

Planners said the care home would ruin most of the green space, result in a number of trees being cut down and would harm wildlife if it was allowed to be built.

Objectors have continued to criticise the plan for destroying the green space.

In an objection, Kath Fox of Fowell Street, said: “The proposed area for development is one of the only wildlife green areas left on London Road, it is a vital part of the ecosystem and we should protect these green spaces with an absolute passion.”

A plan to build four homes on the land was rejected by Worcester City Council’s planning committee in 2017 where conservation officers said it was a “significant incursion” on the land and “unacceptably compromised and diminished” the conservation area.

Conservation officers have again raised the same objection to the care home plan saying it would “degrade the appearance and setting of the area.”

Around 60 jobs would be created according to the application.