Children's care home refused over parking concerns

Plans for a care home for a single child at Deerleap in Bretton were rejected

Plans for a family home to be converted into a care facility for a single child have been refused over parking concerns.

An application was submitted on behalf of Happy Homes Ltd for a residential care home to care for a single child with up to three carers, two sleeping overnight, working on a rota basis, at Deerleap, Bretton in Peterborough.

The two-bedroom property would offer care to a child with emotional and behavioural difficulties and currently has one car parking space.

Peterborough City Council's planning team ruled the application would lead to "unacceptable parking provision".

Parking burden

According to the planning statement, the intention of the plan was to register the home for a single child, and the facility would be reviewed through OFSTED and have a stringent impact risk assessment to ensure it would integrate with the local community.

"The children will live at the property long term, hopefully for many years. This is not a halfway house or emergency housing for children," it said.

Additionally, the proposal said six carers would operate on a shift pattern of 48 hours on, 60 hours off. Except at changeover times, which last around 10 minutes, there would be no more than three carers on the premises at any one time.

Rejecting the proposal, the planning officers said: "The proposed development provides an unusable and insufficient parking arrangement for this type of commercial use on site.

"Therefore resulting in unacceptable parking provision for the proposed use.

"Further, given the constraints within this area of Bretton, in terms of the carriageway width and limited off-street parking for existing residents and visitors, the street cannot accommodate any additional parking burden."