Care home plan for Milton Keynes garden centre’s car park is withdrawn

Hampton Healthcare had applied to Milton Keynes Council for permission to knock down a storage shed at the Woburn Sands Emporium, off Newport Road, in Wavendon, and redevelop part of the 1.17 hectare site.

The developer’s agent confirmed that the plan has been withdrawn “but will be re-submitted soon taking account of feedback received”.

Among the feedback were concerns that not enough car parking would be provided for both the care home, and the continued garden centre business.

Milton Keynes Council’s highways experts said that there would be a need for 238 parking spaces but only 172 were in the plan.

“Whilst the application is generally acceptable in other respects,” said the council’s highways experts, “the potential lack of parking is sufficient to warrant a recommendation of refusal on parking grounds.”

The care home would have a coffee lounge, a library, a cinema room, a beauty therapy room as well as a GP’s consulting room, the plans reveal. It would also create 110 jobs.

Hampton Healthcare is a well-established residential care home operator with sites in Wellingborough and its headquarters, in Northampton.

The company provides 24 hour residential care, and specialises in caring for people with dementia.

Wavendon Parish Council had said it is not against the building of a care home but does not support it being a three-storey building.

It also said the building “could be at best described as bland” and has concerns about problems on the busy Newport Road.

The application also attracted opposition from the owners of the Burlington Hall care home in nearby Woburn Sands.

The Adara Group, also based in Northampton, said the application had not proved there was a need for another care home in the area.