Care home bid for Preston rugby club site

Plans have been submitted to build a 74-bed care home at a Preston rugby club site.
The park and ride provision is set to be moved elsewhere on the Preston Grasshoppers siteThe park and ride provision is set to be moved elsewhere on the Preston Grasshoppers site
The park and ride provision is set to be moved elsewhere on the Preston Grasshoppers site

But fears have been allayed that the scheme at Preston Grasshoppers will impact on a vital park and ride system for hospital staff.

Developers have submitted a bid for a two-storey facility on the overflow car park off Lightfoot Lane.

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The site - with 150 parking spaces - is used by medical staff to ease parking problems at the nearby Royal Preston Hospital and has been for the last decade.

NHS bosses say the park and ride provision will be moved elsewhere on the site.

The planning application for the care home is expected to go before the city council’s planning committee in either July or August.

The plans mark another development close to the rugby club with nearby housing plots established in recent years. Rugby club officials held a special general meeting about the plans earlier this month.

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A spokesman for PGRFC said: “We have been analysing how best to use the land we have at our disposal to secure the longevity of the club. This is a potential opportunity that has been put forward to us for consideration.

"We are looking at the options to develop alternative car parking arrangements to compensate for the disposal of part of our current car park.”

The care home will create 40 full-time and 15 part-time jobs, according to the plans now under consideration at the town hall.

A planning document reads: “The proposed development of a residential care home would be entirely consistent with the aims of the North West Preston Masterplan as it will provide care facilities that could meet the needs of the new residential areas, and also provide local employment opportunities for the new community.

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“The overspill car park for 150 that the NHS site currently occupies will be relocated to another car park under a new separate application.”

A spokesperson for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said “staff parking arrangements will not be affected.”

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