New care home plans for Coldstream

Six years after an application for a new care home in Coldstream was refused, another application has been lodged for the same site.

Aitken Turnbull were approached by Andrew Douglas-Home early last year to investigate the possibility of obtaining consent for a 60 bed care home on the site at Ladies Field, the subject of the 2006 plans which were refused following a vote of members at the now defunct Berwickshire Area Committee.

The main reasons for the application being turned down back then were the fact that the site lies outwith Coldstream’s settlement boundary and overriding local need had not been identified.

With regards to the local need not being identified, this was mainly due to a concurrent application for a 60 bed care home on a site in Duns Road which was supported by the Reporter following a planning appeal.

This site has subsequently been subject to an application for residential development and consequently is not able to fulfil the local need which has been identified and confirmed by Scottish Borders Council Social Work Department.

The applicant state that a number of “robust meetings” have taken place with council representatives, with SBC’s Social Work Department confirming that there is a current need for a 32 bed care home inclusive of an eight bed dementia facility.

A report in support of the applications adds that ‘The Local Authority also confirmed that they welcomed the proposal for a purpose built facility designed to current standards and which would meet specific needs since of the 23 care homes which exist in the Scottish Borders only three have been purposely designed as care homes.’