Children’s care home for Walsall cul-de-sac plan approved despite concerns

More than 250 people voiced their opposition to a retrospective application by New Era Residence to convert the property on The Oaks in Bloxwich into a support facility for two young people.

They cited concerns about crime, antisocial behaviour and parking making access for emergency service vehicles, people with prams and wheelchair users problematic.

A young child has already been housed in the property within the last couple of months with residents telling members of Walsall Council’s planning committee there had already been worrying incidents.

These included claims the child had walked into the road and almost gotten run over and a complaint about the child screaming which left neighbours ‘distressed’.

But officers said no evidence had been provided to substantiate claims the children’s care home would cause an increase in crime, antisocial behaviour and drug abuse.

They also added the police highways authority had not raised any objections to the proposal, while a number of other reasons for objecting were not material planning considerations.

New Era Residence said the home would support no more than two youngsters with learning difficulties and would be staffed round the clock.

Resident Gregory Geldard said allowing a care home to operate at The Oaks would be in breach of a number of conditions of the deeds of the properties.

These included houses should be of single family occupancy and no businesses should operate there. He added it would also breach nuisance laws and see an increase in noise, traffic and litter.

He said: “New Era have not alleviated the fears of the close and the surrounding area, that they are a professional and well run provider.

“The application was made with no interaction with neighbours while the application itself does not give confidence.”

Another resident Dawn Richards said: “I feel this is a poorly executed proposal. For a children’s home to be situated within a quiet cul-de-sac is ill thought out and detrimental to residents.

“In no way is this fair on the children. It is not the right setting and with all the negative responses, the issue will always be a problem for residents.”

The proposal divided opinion in the council chamber but was narrowly passed following a debate.

Chairman Mike Bird said: “We have to accommodate those children. When I came on the council, we used to have children’s homes with 20 or 30 children in those homes.

“I made a vow to close them down and every one was. Purely and simply because a child should be in a homely residential position and not institutionalised as we used to do.”