New 72-bedroom care home planned at Werrington Centre in Peterborough

Plans for a new care home at the Werrington centre, composing of 72 bedrooms, have been submitted.

County Court Care Ltd, which also runs the Castor Lodge Care Home, are behind the plans and hope to redevelop the area immediately to the south of its head offices at Olympus House.

The development would provide a 72-bedroom care home as well as an eight-unit apartment block contained within two buildings and spread over three floors.

The care home would include a lobby, reception, cafe, meeting room, medicine stores, nursing stations and day space on the ground floor.

The first floor would also an open ‘winter garden’ area with the second floor accommodating a plant room, laundry room, main kitchen and a staff room.

The proposed apartments would be contained within a single block, containing four apartments on each floor, all containing a double bedroom, bathroom, hallway, store and the main living, kitchen and dining area as a single open space.

The development would also provide 35 car parking spaces (three of which would be disabled bays), six cycle parking spaces and a landscaped area would also be created around the building with several patio areas.

The proposed apartments will have a dedicated car parking space each as well as a further space for use by visitors.

The apartments will have communal space around them for use by future residents. It has been common with other Country Court Care developments that the apartments are let to care staff directly, which brings forward the benefit of having staff ‘on site’ and facilitating easy changes in shift patterns.

Plans show the development being accessed by a single road access point on Staniland Way and a new proposed bus stop position at the foot of the development.

In February 2022, planning permission was refused for plans for 59 affordable apartments and two retail units at the Werrington Centre.

The application states: “The applicants are experienced care home operators and are fully aware of the increasing need for care home places in the towns and villages within which they have premises.

“The increasing need for such facilities also brings with it a desire for modern, purpose-built development over the well-established but dated format of the conversion of larger and/or older properties.

“The application site represents an ideal opportunity to develop within this area, with what may become a ‘flagship’ development as it is immediately to the south of the County Care head offices.

“The development proposed will serve to provide a strong built-edge to Goodwin Walk, but with ‘defensible’, landscaped space between the highway footpaths and the front facades of the care home building. This will provide an attractive frontage to the development.”

Plans can be viewed on Peterborough City Council’s planning portal using reference 23/01733/FUL.