Five-storey apartment plan for Stalybridge in Tameside to provide adult social care

A five-storey apartment building could be built in Tameside to provide specialist adult social care.

An application for 21 apartments on land on Grosvenor Street in Stalybridge has been lodged with Tameside Council.

The land is currently ‘derelict open space’ and is presumed to have been left vacant as part of the wider clearance of the former gas works and buildings to the north of High Street, according to planning documents.

Planning permission has previously been granted for a four-storey residential building with 14 general needs apartments on the site.

What did the report submitted to planners say?

A report provided on behalf of the applicant, Evans UK Property Limited, states: “The site is currently vacant and disused and has become an eyesore within a prominent part of the town centre along Grosvenor Street, a partial shared surface route into the town centre.”

It states that new build schemes of this sort provide ‘comprehensive facilities allow for staff to provide greater oversight and an uplift in care’.

“On site office ensures that staff have facilities and premises on site reducing travel time and increasing the amount of time they can spend with residents improving their overall access to care,” the document adds.

“The proposed development will be providing 24hr staffing to ensure that there is the appropriate care provided within a modern purpose built facility in close proximity to the town centre.”

There would be no parking spaces included with the ‘car free’ development, which the applicant says would be acceptable due to the ‘highly sustainable nature of the location’.

The document states that existing parking restrictions on the roads would ‘discourage any potential nuisance on-street parking’.

The applicant says the building would deliver a number of social and economic benefits, including ‘delivering a specialist adult care facility to uplift the standard of care able to be provided to a much at need sector of the community’.

The planning statement adds that the development would ‘ support vitality and vibrancy of the town centre’ in Stalybridge.

There have been four public objections lodged so far over the plans.

A decision is expected on the plans by mid-September.