Care Home Approved beside Cricketer’s Birthplace at Downend, Bristol

Tetlow King Planning (TKP) has obtained planning permission for a 49 bedroom care home for older persons in North Street, Downend, Bristol within the South Gloucestershire Council area on behalf of Earlplace Limited.  The Architects on the project were Robothams of Warwick.

The site had been the subject of previous unsuccessful planning appeals for similarly sized developments for a care home. These exposed the difficulties of accommodating the requirements of modern care operators in terms of the scale and facilities that are needed  to produce a viable care operation on an urban  brownfield site.  Such sites tend to have difficult constraints related to the relationship with adjoining uses.

This site adjoins and has a close relationship with a Listed Building which was the birthplace of the internationally famous cricketer, WG Grace.  The impact on this building was one of the reasons why the previous proposals were unacceptable but it was also related to the impact on neighbouring residential properties due to overlooking and being overbearing. Robothams produced a design of high quality that addressed these issues; in particular reducing the impact on the adjoining Listed Building yet still allowing a viable care use to be accommodated.

TKP guided the design and explained to the local planning authority why it was now in accordance with planning policy. We negotiated a viable level of financial contributions acceptable to the client.  We  was also addressed the concerns of neighbours on parking levels and other issues.

The success of the amended proposals indicates that appeal refusals can sometimes be used as the basis for a resubmitted application. The appeal decision provided a clear set of issues for TKP to address; and based on these we systematically applied our specialist  skills and expertise to achieve a positive outcome.

The project was carried out under the direction of John Sneddon, Managing Director.