Former Derbyshire care home to be turned into new housing

Tansley House Residential Home in Church Street closed its doors in August 2018 after nearly three decades of management by Alan Baranowski.

It has remained vacant since then but has now to be turned into two two-bed houses and six apartments.

The plans have been approved Derbyshire Dales Council officers.

Documents submitted to the district council say the 19-room care home was full when it closed.

However, Derbyshire County Council said: “The owner reported that he was unable to sell the business as he felt it was not profitable and that he struggled to recruit and retain the necessary care and support staff.

The authority says it says the cost of bringing the site up to modern standards would be ‘substantial’ and ‘would likely not be a sustainable business proposition’.

It says that there are currently 401 residential care beds in the Derbyshire Dales district – predicting an increased need of 426 by 2025, reducing again to 355 by 2035.

The county council is currently using this reducing need over the next few decades to justify plans to close seven of its care homes.

A report submitted with the application says ‘financially viable homes tend to be constructed with 40 or more rooms’ – which the county council agrees with.

The applicant says that 75 per cent of the rooms (14) in the former care home do not meet the size required by the Care and Quality Commission – 12 square metres and an en-suite bathroom.

It says to meet the required size would mean losing 40 per cent (seven) of the rooms.

This, coupled with a need to upgrade the lift, boiler, alarm system and laundry facilities, ‘made investment unviable’.

The former care home would be converted into two two-bed houses, with two car parking spaces each; four one-bed apartments, with a parking space each; and two two-bed apartments, each with their own parking space.

Access to the site would continue to stem off Church Street and a new access off Tansley House Gardens is also planned.

The applicant says the houses will be ‘modest in size and appeal to the first-time buyer market’.

He says the three ground floor apartments and two first floor flats, with lift access, would appeal to those with reduced mobility, while the remaining apartment would suit a first-time buyer.