Developers no longer want to build an elderly care home on former Redruth site in Northampton

The Redruth Nursing Home in Weedon Road, Upton, was shut down in 2014 after the Care Quality Commission had serious concerns about concerns “the environment, facilities and record keeping” at the facility.

Later in the year, developers DWA Architects got planning permission to build a new home on the site, which it planned to fit with 71 en-suite rooms and eight assisted living apartments.

Operators Avery Healthcare now made a fresh application to keep the building dimensions roughly the same - but make the facility into exclusively assisted living units.

A planning statement submitted with the new proposals, states: "Unfortunately, the applicant considers that the approved care home is no longer a viable option.

"This proposal will provide the much-needed assisted living accommodation within the borough, and help alleviate the housing shortage facing young people and families through freeing up family-sized housing."

very says the proposed scheme could be "satisfactorily accommodated" within the site without creating a "cramped, overdeveloped appearance."

The scale, positioning and size of the proposed development "echoes" that of the previously approved care home, the statement continues to say. Building on site is already underway.

Last week the Chronicle and Echo reported how the association for registered care homes in Northamptonshire, Norarch, had launched legal proceedings against the county council over a move it claimed would put homes out of business.

The council intends to introduce a “bidding” system where care homes would have to tender a price for the care of individual pensioners.

Though one care home operator told the Chron the move would leave some home-owners unable to "comply with their statutory duties.”