Revised proposals for a care home development on Wearside have been given the green light by city planning chiefs.

Sunderland City Council’s planning department has approved an amended planning application for a long-vacant former car sales garage site in the city’s Castle ward.

The land sits on the junction of North Hylton Road and Castletown Way, near a Lidl supermarket, and was cleared around a decade ago.

Last year, proposals from applicant Verum Victum Healthcare to build a 94-unit care home were approved by the council’s Planning and Highways Committee.

The development was expected to cater for a range of needs with 58 apartments proposed for extra care, specialist care and assisted living accommodation and a 36-bed intermediate care facility.

A planning statement submitted with the application added the care facility would enhance independence as well as providing specialist dementia care and provision to “support the timely discharge from hospital”.

Despite the planning permission being issued more than a year ago (March 2023), the site remains largely vacant.

Earlier this year, applicant Verum Victum Healthcare applied for permission to amend the planning application description to “remove all reference to numbers of apartments/bed spaces”.

This application was approved by Sunderland City Council in July, 2024, and council planners, in a report, said the amendment would “not change the scale of the proposed development or have any impacts either visually or in terms of amenity”.

A further planning application was submitted to the city council in August, 2024, seeking to “facilitate a change in schedule of accommodation” at the care development.

This included proposals for “85 apartments for extra care” along with “minor amendments to elevations”, a “re-configuration” of the development’s internal layout and the “omission of the secondary pedestrian access point at first floor level to [the] west elevation”.

Floor plans showed the building layout over four floors, with a kitchen, restaurant/lounge, entrance foyer and reception, ‘buggy store’, consultant room, offices, activity room and changing facilities on the ground floor, as well as a spa, salon, physiotherapy room and eight one-bed apartments.

The remaining upper floors included 77 one-bed apartments, as well as some lounge, laundry and staff areas, with 85 apartments in total across the proposed building.

Original approved plans showed part of the building’s top floor dedicated to intermediate care bedrooms, which were described in a design and access statement as being used for “residents requiring short-term accommodation before or following hospital operations, or who are struggling to live at home”.

However, the amended floor plans for the proposed care home removed reference to these 36 bed spaces, with the proposed description for the care home being changed to “85 apartments for extra care”.

After considering the new planning application and assessing it against planning policies, Sunderland City Council’s planning department approved it on October 23, 2024.

Council planners, in a decision report, said the scheme would be acceptable in relation to “design and visual impact” and would “have no unacceptable impacts” on the amenity of neighbours, “either during the construction process or when it is in use / operation”.

The council decision report added: “It is considered that the proposed development, including the amendments, would cause no unacceptable impacts on the highway network in terms of its capacity and safety, or in relation to sustainable travel.”

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Under planning conditions, the development must be brought forward “not later than three years beginning with the date on which the original [planning] permission was granted (08/03/2023)”.

For more information on the planning application or to track its progress, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 24/01598/VAR Caption: Proposed site for care home development off North Hylton Road, Sunderland (August 2024) Credit: LDRS