Plans for adult care home in Peterborough refused due to parking concerns

Planning permission was sought to convert 3, Chapel Street, in Stanground, into a care facility for adults with complex needs.

However, Peterborough City Council has refused to grant planning permission due to parking concerns.

The application, which had received 22 objections, detailed a scheme to create four individual living units, with a communal kitchen and garden.

The facility would have required 24-hour care staff, with six carers at the site in the day time and four at night. However, the plans only allowed for one on-site parking space.

The council says the decision was taken due to ‘insufficient on-site parking’ with the Local Highways Authority (LHA) stating “Any additional off-site parking would be a further detriment to highway safety adding to the existing level of vehicles parked in unsafe locations on the adjoining public highway.”

It said that traffic issues are “already a problem” in the street – with concerns that additional parking and traffic could “compromise the safety” of those travelling to and from the nearby school and nursery.

Summarising the highways concerns, the council’s case officer writes: “There is already obvious school parking issues morning and afternoon. The road itself is extremely busy as it is and it may sometimes be very difficult to pass through cars in both sides of the road, especially for emergency vehicles.”

Buses have even had to stop operating down the street due to “badly-parked vehicles stopping free movement”, they added.

Officers agreed with the LHA that the proposed one-vehicle parking space was “not adequate for the change of use of this site”.

The Telegraph has approached the applicant for a comment.