PART of a former care home will be converted back into a house after plans were backed by the council.

Planning officers at Worcester City Council have approved a plan by Beau Homes which will see one part of a former care home in Shrubbery Avenue, in Worcester, converted into a five-bed house.

The care home stretched across five buildings in Shrubbery Avenue but has been empty since 2019 after the provider moved out.

In submitted comments alongside the application, Sophie and Gareth Hughes of Rockingham Lane in Worcester, who had previously converted the former Berywn House Medical Practice in Shrubbery Avenue into a home, said: “We bought [the building] from Beau Homes - it is a completely independent development to the rest of the former Shrubbery Care Home, and this should be viewed as a stand-alone planning application.

“We will return it to its former glory, retaining as many Edwardian features as we can, and having an appropriate frontage.”

A report outlining the council’s approval said the conversion to a home would have less of an impact on the street than the former nursing home did.

“In terms of the impact on the amenities of the surrounding properties, the neighbouring four properties are in the applicants’ ownership,” the report said.

“However, the amenity still needs to be considered.

“Given that there would not be any extensions proposed to the existing property, there would be minimal impacts.

“The former use as a nursing home would have had a greater impact on the neighbouring residents in terms of increased noise, visitors and general comings and goings.”

A statement included with the application said most of the work would be carried out to the inside of the house with the external building largely left untouched.

A rear extension would be demolished as part of the work with existing ‘poor’ windows replaced and repairs made to crumbling garden walls.

The three-storey building does sit within the city’s Shrubbery Avenue conservation area but is not listed – nor locally listed – and is earmarked as a ‘key unlisted structure’ in the area.

The work would “protect and enhance the character of the area through substantial improvements to the building’s façade” according to the application.