Social housing plans for former care home site set for approval

Plans to use the site of a former care home to build social housing are set to be approved next week.

Wrexham Council have put forward an application to develop 14 properties at Nant Silyn in Caia Park.

It comes as part of plans by the local authority to start a programme of building social housing.

The 29 bedroom facility at Nant Silyn had been the only council-owned care home in the county borough, however it was closed after being seen as “no longer financially viable or required”. The land has sat disused since councillors approved the ‘decommissioning’ the care home in nearly four years ago.

In 2015, the council approved a “Build & Buy” programme to increase the size of its social housing stock but the lack of suitable council-owned land has slowed down the roll-out of this approach.

Now in a bid to kickstart the building of social housing in Wrexham, it has been proposed that eight one bedroom apartments, four two bedroom houses, one two bedroom bungalow and a one bedroom bungalow are built on the site.

Next week members of the council’s planning committee will be asked to consider the application, which has been recommended for approval by Lawrence Isted, chief officer of planning and regulatory.

One objection the proposed redevelopment has been submitted, with a letter submitted to Wrexham Council raising concerns about the potential traffic and parking issues the plans could cause.

Addressing the concerns in his report, Mr Isted notes that the the “former care home had just seven parking spaces and the proposed should reduce parking demand when balanced against the former use of the site.”

He adds: “The proposed development is acceptable in terms of scale and design, and adequate onsite parking has been provided together with safe and satisfactory vehicular and pedestrian access.

“The residential development of the site would not be detrimental to local residential or visual
amenity and I recommend accordingly.”

The report will be considered by planning committee members on Monday 1st July at 4pm. The meeting is open to the public and will also be webcast on the Wrexham Council website.