Pointon care home given green light despite villager’s fear children not from ‘stable backgrounds’ could be ‘roaming around’

Plans to convert a house into a children’s care home have been given the green light.

Under the proposal, Pointon House on High Street, Pointon, would be converted from a residential home into a children’s care home for up to four children.

A minimum of two full-time staff would be employed on a 24/7 basis and 10 parking spaces would be created.

Members of South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee authorised the assistant director of planning to grant permission for the proposal at a planning meeting today (Thursday, October 23).

But the district council said that it had received seven letters from residents outlining concerns about the risk of anti-social behaviour, a lack of public transport in the village and site being close to a main road - posing a risk to the children.

Pointon resident Tom Wright said: “My main concern is potential anti-social behaviour. The application goes into detail about the complex needs of the children. It mentions substance abuse, alcohol abuse.

“They’re referred to as children but they're potentially up to 17 years old so they could be youths. They talk about what will happen in the event of their rooms being destroyed. "

Mr Wright went on to say that the lack of amenities in the village could lead to a rise in anti-social behaviour.

He added: “There is little for children to do in Pointon and there’s nothing in the risk assessment that talks about what will happen should these activities create a wider risk to the public.

“We have a number of vulnerable individuals in Pointon. It’s quite an elderly population.

“I’m worried really. Are we going to have groups of children roaming around with nothing to do, getting up to mischief?”

Coun Helen Crawford (Conservative), who represents the Bourne West ward, responded to the resident’s concerns.

She said: “Are there any other children in the village? Because you’re presuming that these four children will be roaming around the streets and I take it there are no children roaming the streets at this point?”

Mr Wright responded that there were children currently living in the village and residents hadn’t raised any issues about them.

But he said that these children were from ‘stable family backgrounds’ and said he was concerned that children with specialist needs might cause anti-social behaviour.

But Coun Crawford criticised his comments and said he was making assumptions.

She added: “With the best will in the world, you can have a stable family background, but you still might have some black sheep that might not follow the rules.”

Applicant Natalie Day-Smith told the committee that many of these concerns are based on negative stereotypes.

She said: “I’ve worked in children’s homes for the last 13 years. My colleague Emma has worked for 23 years in children’s homes.

“These are concerns that we’ve seen before. It’s nothing new. Sadly, there are some negative stereotypes around children who live in children’s homes."

She went on to say that she set up a social care organisation a year ago which provides residential care for children aged 7 to 18 - and has not had any complaints from residents at a different site.

She added: “I understand that there might be concerns around how children in children’s homes might behave. They’re unfounded. I’ve worked in children’s homes for 13 years.

“Since we’ve had Ideal Social Care, we’ve been running for a year now. There’s been no complaints from neighbours and that’s from a new-build property which is much more heavily overlooked and seen by other people.”

The application has been approved subject to conditions.