Care home approved amid health provision concerns
LNT CONSTRUCTION LTDA care home will be built on a housing estate despite local concerns over a lack of healthcare facilities in the area.
Councillors approved plans on Friday for a 66-bed residential care home to be built in Newcastle Great Park.
While the site had been earmarked for shops, Newcastle City Council planners said there was a "clear unmet demand" in the city for more care homes as the authority signed off on LTN Care Developments' plans.
Residents of Great Park complained earlier this year that they were being treated like "cash cows" after proposals for about 160 more homes on the estate were unveiled for space originally meant for community amenities like a hospital or fitness centre.
While there is a pharmacy in the estate's town centre, it has no GP surgery of its own and the nearest walk-in centre is almost five miles (8km) away in Cowgate, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
'Really not on'
At Friday's planning committee meeting, Liberal Democrat Doreen Huddart raised concerns about the effect on NHS services of more than 60 elderly people with extra healthcare needs and called for the plans to be put on hold until an agreement was in place for new healthcare facilities.
Huddart was one of two councillors to vote against the scheme.
Fellow Lib Dem Peter Allen, who abstained from the vote, agreed the lack of healthcare services in the area was "really not on".
A council planner's report on the proposed care home site, west of Brunton Drive, acknowledged the development was "not easily accessible to local healthcare facilities" but said "significant weight can be afforded to the benefit of the scheme".
It added local NHS chiefs are thought to be "pursuing options either to create a new GP surgery to serve the Great Park or to add capacity to an existing practice".
As part of the planning permission, the council will require the developer to pay about £92,000 towards increasing the capacity of local healthcare services.
