Plans to demolish bungalow to build new Essex care home set to be approved
A bungalow is set to be knocked down and replaced with a new 20-bedroom care home, with councillors preparing to give the development the green light. The proposals by Your Property Investment Group are for 186 Canvey Road, Canvey Island and have been scaled back by the developer with changes to the size and locations of the bedrooms.
Under the plans, the bedrooms would be located on the upper floors with communal areas on the ground floor, including the lounge and dining areas, office, kitchen facilities, staff room and areas for plant and bin storage. Canvey Town Council objected to the plans and raised various concerns, including noise and disturbance to neighbouring streets; emergency vehicles would struggle to access the development via St Marks Road, and the drainage infrastructure may not cope with the extra toilets.
Residents also raised a number of concerns including increased on-street parking, noise and disturbance from this, site is home to common pipistrelle bat, no need for a residential care home at this location, and the impact on infrastructure such as doctors. The council’s planning officer states the new amended plans are more appropriate.
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The report says: “While initially there was some concern over the building’s proximity to the boundary with Canvey Road, it is noted that the site is on lower ground than the road, there is no strong building line to the buildings generally on this side of the road and the part of the building nearest the highway is single storey. The proposed building would be in institutional use, not of domestic scale or architectural design and not expected to appear similar in scale or distance from the highway to nearby houses. These factors are sufficient to mitigate the impact of the development on the street scene.
“The proposal would deliver a nursing care home which would be a facility of benefit to Canvey residents in need of such accommodation. This is viewed as a public benefit of the proposal capable of outweighing the less than substantial harm to the significance of the designated heritage asset. The proposal would provide a benefit in terms of a new care home for the area. This would go towards meeting an identified need for such specialist accommodation so carries significant weight in favour of the application.
"The proposal would re-use previously developed land, which carries a small amount of weight in its favour. There would be economic benefits in terms of trade for local suppliers, gardeners etc. as well as economic activity from the construction, but in the overall context of the island economy this would be quite a small benefit carrying little weight.”