Backing for Audlem care home bid

An Audlem care home looks likely to win its bid for major extension and alterations.

Cheshire East planners are recommending approval of expansion plans for Audlem Country Home on School Lane despite objections from neighbours.

The three-year time limit on existing planning approval for a scheme by Keenrick Nursing Homes to carry out major alterations on the site is due to run out next month.

The original application for alterations and extensions at the Grade II Listed site got the go-ahead in 2005 and plans were renewed in 2010.

The development is for 22 new units on the former Audlem Grammar School site, some of which would be accommodated in a new single storey extension to the west of the nursing home.

Neighbours object to the loss of green space, the extra traffic that could be generated on narrow lanes and fear that the existing sewage system is already overloaded.

But neither the council's highways department nor United Utilities has lodged any objection to the scheme.

In a report to Cheshire East's Southern Planning Board meeting on September 18th, planning officers say: "it is not intended for Local Planning Authorities to re-open debates about principles of any particular proposal except where material circumstances have changed."

As there has been no change in circumstances and in light of government advice to take a positive and constructive approach towards applications that improve the prospects of sustainable development, the report recommends that approval be granted.

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