Councillors urged to throw out Aberdeen care-home plans

COUNCILLORS in Aberdeen have been urged to throw out plans for a 54-bed nursing home on green-belt land in the city’s west end.

Local authority planning officials have recommended the plans for land north of Airyhall House, Craigton Road, are rejected next week.

The trustees of the Nazareth House Care Home submitted the proposals but the scheme attracted 113 letters of objection.

The trustees want to move from their existing care home in Claremont Street, with a ruling on a proposal to build 92 homes on that site recommended for approval and to be considered by councillors today. The application for the replacement care home will be the first to go before full council under new planning rules, because a public hearing was held into the proposal as a result of the number of objections.

Braeside and Mannofield Community Council objected to the scheme on the grounds it was green-belt land, as did north-east Tory MSP Nanette Milne.

The council’s head of planning and infrastructure, Maggie Bochel, has recommended the application be refused.

She said it would be contrary to green-belt policy in the city’s local plan, that the applicant had failed to demonstrate an “overriding and compelling” need for the nursing home to be built on that site.

Ms Bochel added that it was likely to contribute towards the linking of Airyhall and Cults, which would be contrary to a key aim of the green belt in the current local plan.

Councillors will rule on the plans at Wednesday’s full council meeting.