Luxury houses approved for abandoned Preston care home site

Town hall planners have given the green light to the four properties, which will be developed on the redundant tennis courts and overgrown gardens of Grimsargh Lodge.

The building, off Preston Road in Grimsargh, operated as a rest and nursing facility from the early 1980s until its closure in 2017, after being rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission the previous year. It has stood empty ever since and, after being repossessed, has become a target for vandals and fallen into a state of disrepair.

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A separate application to demolish the premises – which are now unsafe to enter – and build a new property in their place is currently under consideration by Preston City Council. In the meantime, however, the authority has approved the redevelopment of the surrounding wider plot by J&J Holden Homes Limited.

Two five-bedroomed homes, with integral double garages, and a pair of four-bed properties, with detached single garages, are now set to spring up within what the firm describes as “an informal courtyard setting”.

The site lies within an area of open countryside, where most types of new development would not usually be permitted. However, a report by city council planning officers notes that the authority is currently within what it expects to be a brief window – predicted to end next month – during which it is unable to meet the government requirement to demonstrate that it has a five-year supply of land set aside to meet its new housing needs.

That means it is bound to give the go-ahead to developments it might otherwise refuse, unless the adverse effects of doing so would “significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits” of adding to the city’s housing stock.

Planning officials concluded that because the plot sits between a completed residential development and land on which plans for 48 bungalows and a new care home have already been approved – all of which are also in the open countryside – the construction within the grounds of Grimsargh Lodge would not have an unacceptable further impact.

The authority has recommended the developer considers providing an adopted road within the site – rather than the private one currently proposed – so refuse lorries can collect bins from directly outside the new properties, rather than residents having to walk them a lengthy distance to a storage area at the main road kerbside.

Two members of the public objected to redevelopment plans, citing concerns including the properties being out of keeping with the surrounding area and the potential impact on existing residents from “loss of privacy [and] general disturbance”.