Residents oppose care home plan on estate

Residents on an estate in Scarborough have hit out at plans to build a large care home near where they live.

Proposals by North Yorkshire Council for the 60-bed facility at Pelton Wheel Lane in Eastfield have been criticised by people who said they were concerned about its impact on local facilities and the environment.

One resident, Jessica Rogers, said the development posed a "severe threat" to child road safety and would result in "the destruction of the estate's sole green space which has been left to nature".

The council said the plans, open to representations from members of the public, would speed up hospital discharges and alleviate shortfalls in care capacity across the county.

According to the plans, the three-storey site would offer short-term care for 20 residents, intermediate care for 25 residents and dementia care for a further 15 as part of a £30m council plan to build care hubs in Scarborough and Harrogate.

The proposals come after a funding review in 2023 identified a significant shortfall in intermediate care capacity across the county.

North Yorkshire Council noted that current provision was unable to fully meet existing demand or anticipated future needs, meaning increased reliance on higher-cost placements within the independent sector to deliver specialist and intermediate care services.

However, residents have raised concerns about the site's viability and said that previously promised facilities had yet to be provided, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Objecting to the plans, Amy Attridge said: "We moved on to the estate in 2017 and we were promised a children's park and for it to be a lovely estate.

"This unfortunately has not happened. It is now 2026 and no children's park has been erected, and the estate is going incredibly downhill, with antisocial behaviour at an all-time high."

Attridge said that if given the go-ahead, the facility would increase traffic to "ridiculous amounts".

Another local resident, Jane Ashworth, said while she was not opposed to "the need for a care hub", she "strenuously" disagreed with the proposed location.

Ashworth also raised concerns about privacy and parking, road safety, light pollution and strain on local infrastructure.

Meanwhile, objector Rebecca Taylor said children used the proposed site to play on and residents walked their dogs there and they were all "enjoying the land".

"I think it is unfair that it should be taken away from us," she added.

"We still have no park or play area for the residents, which was promised to us by the developers.

"Why should something that was never part of the plan be built before something that was part of the plan?"

According to the plans, the highly energy-efficient building was designed to incorporate sustainability measures such as solar photovoltaic panels and modern low-energy building systems to reduce environmental impacts and operational energy consumption.

No date has yet been set by the council for deciding on the plans.

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