A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build a new care home next to one of the city’s busiest routes has re-emerged.

Arden Croft has put forward plans which would see a new 61-bed care home built on land off the congested London Road in Worcester.

Around 60 jobs would be created according to the application.

A statement included with the application said: “This amended application has been the result of a further lengthy and iterative collaboration between all of the revised design team comprising architects, arboriculturists, ecologists, drainage engineers, highway consultants, landscape architects and heritage assessors. 

“The proposed development will make efficient and effective use of this site which is one which is suffering from a lack of management.

“As such it is an underutilised and deteriorating asset which this application will redress.”

The plan was scrapped in March after an outcry from neighbours but has now been resubmitted to Worcester City Council.

Neighbours said the wildlife-filled green space would be destroyed if the care home is allowed to be built.

The city council’s planning committee was expected to make a decision on the plan in February but it was withdrawn from the agenda at the last minute and then scrapped altogether.

Council planning officers had recommended the plan should be rejected ahead of the meeting.

Planners said the care home would ruin most of the green space, result in a number of trees being cut down and would harm wildlife if it was allowed to be built.

Conservation officers also objected to the plan “in the strongest possible terms” saying the care home “could [not] in any way be considered as preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of the Lark Hill conservation area.”

Officers also said the care home’s parking was not up to standard and would result in cars being parked in surrounding – and already congested – streets.

More than 30 objections were lodged with Worcester City Council during public consultation complaining about the potential traffic problems the new care home would cause in London Road.

You can have your say on the plan by visiting Worcester City Council’s website.

The application number is 22/00679/FUL and consultation ends on October 5.