
A council-backed plan to convert a Scarborough church hall into accommodation for individuals with learning disabilities and autism has been submitted.
Squirrel Wood Properties’ (SWP) application has proposed converting St Saviour’s Church Hall on Gladstone Road, Scarborough into 11 specialised supported housing apartments.
North Yorkshire Council’s health and adult services department has confirmed that it supports the plan for 11 single-bedroom apartments plus staff facilities, to meet the needs that currently exist in Scarborough.
If approved, the scheme, together with on-site support provided by Ivolve Care & Support, will
"deliver positive outcomes for individuals by increasing their independent living skills and providing an enhanced positive experience of care with a reduction in the need for paid support,”
The church hall, located a five-minute minute walk from Scarborough Railway Station, would be “sensitively re-purposed”, with the majority of works limited to internal reconfiguration and remodelling.
Plans state that most of the existing green space would be used as a communal garden area and new trees have been proposed at the north of the site to enhance the landscape, as well as creating a “buffer zone between the existing building and the adjacent church”.
SWP, the applicant, is a “specialist social impact developer of supported living accommodation for individuals with disabilities and other support needs”.
According to its planning statement, the company was founded to provide people with “high-quality environments to enable independence and freedom”.
“[We are] delivering this scheme with the full support and cooperation of North Yorkshire Council’s health and adult services supported housing team to meet an identified local need for appropriate accommodation for individuals with learning disabilities and autism,” the company said.
The church hall is regarded as a “non-designated heritage asset” and the development would retain “all key design features that distinguish the building and will ensure that the development responds to the immediate site context in terms of its relationship to the adjacent church and wider street scene”.
Parking would be provided at the rear of the site in a residential car park and the scheme would have six parking spaces for the residents to use, alongside a proposed bicycle store.
The planning authority has not set a date for deciding on the application which is currently open to representations from members of the public.
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