Plans lodged for 69-bed extra care housing block for Spalding

Developers are hoping to transform wasteland into a 69-bed extra care housing block.

Plans for the riverside site - a former builder’s merchant yard along Roman Bank in Spalding - have been submitted to South Holland District Council.

Extra care housing, also known as assisted living, allows residents to maintain their independence while being offered help with daily tasks such as washing, dressing, going to the toilet or taking medication.

An artist’s impression of the proposal shows a three-storey building with a central block reaching four storeys - plus basement car park - by the River Welland.

There will also be two ‘passenger-friendly’ lifts.

Many of the proposed rooms have balconies overlooking the bankside.

The apartments are hoped to be open plan kitchen and living spaces with accompanying bedrooms and bathrooms, each being single-bed, two-person spaces.

Plans also include communal gardens.

“The brownfield plot was formerly occupied by Jewson’s Builders Merchant, which has been demolished with the site becoming overgrown with dense vegetation including small trees,” the design and access statement put forward by architects JDDK on behalf of Sea Island Developments read.

The statement adds that developers hope to provide supported living in ‘an area that has no purpose-built care facilities or provision’ with a design which ‘responds to both the River Welland and Roman Bank’.

It also wants to ‘remove the probability of a vacant site attracting anti-social behaviour’.

The report adds that raised ground floor levels would meet Environment Agency requirements while also meeting level access requirements for residents with ‘potential accessibilty needs’.

A pre-application was submitted in October, and items which were highlighted to be addressed included a revised elevation to the building facing the Welland to offer more variation plus a layby on Roman Bank to alllow for refuse collection without holding up traffic.

Local residents and businesses were also invited to comment on the plans with information of the proposals delivered to 750 nearby addresses.

Details of how to offer feedback via a specially set up website were included, with zero responses to the consultation received.