East Ayton care home and new housing plans rejected

Plans to build a 100-bed care home, dubbed a "granny farm", in a village near Scarborough have been rejected.

Scarborough Council's planning committee voted narrowly to refuse the plan for the home and nine dwellings at East Ayton amid environmental concerns.

Councillors said it failed "to reflect the locality" and also criticised the lack of public transport access.

The proposal had earlier been deferred after objections from the parish council and members of the public.

At Thursday's meeting, councillors said the design was "out of scale of the local character".

Speaking at the meeting, Councillor Heather Phillips said: "There are better sites in urban Scarborough.

"This does not fit the vernacular of the village and we have nothing that looks even vaguely like this in our village."

She said that the plan would lead to "health tourism" and would not benefit local people.

"It's a granny farm, that's what I'm going to call it," she added.

East Ayton Parish Councillor Derek Rowell called for the proposals to be rejected, describing the site's location as being "isolated".

Speaking on behalf of the developer, Paul Sedgwick said there was "a high level of need for this type of development in Scarborough".

A report by council officers had stated the proposed scheme was "a policy-compliant application in terms of residential development within a parcel of land allocated by this council for development".

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