REVISED plans to build a care home on a vacant site in Woodley have been submitted to Wokingham Borough Council after previously being refused.
Propco Woodley Green, wants to build a three-storey care home on the site of the former Travis Perkins depot on Woodley Green, south of Church Road.
An earlier plan was refused on November 30 because it was felt the building would be too large, and would overlook neighbouring houses, creating a ‘harmful sense of enclosure’.
Developers have resubmitted plans that they say try to fix this.
A planning statement submitted to Wokingham Borough Council says the north side of the building will be ‘domestic in scale and broken up to relieve any perception of bulk’.
The statement also says the building will be set back ‘significantly’ from neighbours’ homes ‘in order to open up their gardens to natural light and in response to the overbearing an claustrophobic nature of the existing situation.’
Developers also say the care home has to be three storeys high so that it can accommodate 68 beds.
Propco Woodley Green suggests that it needs this number of bedrooms in order for the care home to be viable.
Despite the council’s fears, neighbours’ comments on previous plans welcomed proposals to build the care home on the vacant site.
One said: “Since Travis Perkins vacated this site it has become a real eyesore.”
She added that a care home ‘can only improve the area’.
A Woodley Green resident raised fears that a ‘huge wall’ behind his back garden might cut off his light, and asked for some changes. But he also said he was ‘happy with this scheme’ and ‘always support this type in our area.’
He said: “Since this new scheme has got parking behind this wall, we would request both planners and developers to think about the vertical height and make it more sustainable to us by reducing the vertical height with fence panels or any other alternative designs so that might give us have good life in our garden.”
Propco Woodley Green says the vacant buildings on the site have become targets for ‘trespass and vandalism’. It also argues that the plan would provide ‘critical’ housing for older people.
A public consultation inviting neighbours’ comments on the new plans is set to end on Saturday, January 20.
