June 29, 2022 3.30 pm This story is over 21 months old

Navenby retirement village plans heading for refusal

The visual impact would be “unacceptable”
The retirement village would boast 47 bungalows and a community hub | Photo: NDC Group

Plans for an over 55s retirement village are likely to be scrapped.

Developers hoped to build a community hub and 47 bungalows off Grantham Road in Navenby.

Despite previous plans for a care home on the site being approved, council officers say the latest designs would have “unacceptable visual impact” on the village.

The land, which is next to Cliff Villages Medical Practice, is also outside of the development boundary.

The plans will go before North Kesteven District Council’s planning committee next week.

A visual of the proposed village | Photo: NDC Group

The council previously gave the go-ahead for a care home with eight bungalows, saying there was exceptional demand for this kind of development.

The project was marketed for four years to find an operator with no interest.

The revised scheme for a retirement village was submitted in February by Richard Overton of NDC Group.

However, planners say that a development of this scale can’t be justified, and there is little demand for it.

Small projects can only be allowed outside of development boundaries in “exceptional circumstances”.

The plans are likely to be refused | Photo: NDC Group

A report into the project also says: “The proposals are considered to have an unacceptable visual impact in terms of the historic setting of the settlements of Navenby and Wellingore” which “isn’t outweighed by the public benefits fo the scheme.”

Some of the new bungalows would include dormer rooms but most would be single-storey buildings.

The planning application claims that the retirement village “provides much needed ground floor accommodation for the rapidly increasing elderly and infirm population.

One of the landmark-based roundabouts planned for the site | Photo: NDC Group

“It conforms to the established principles for the site. Instead of constructing a large building block, this latest scheme creates a more dispersed format incorporating individual single storey residences for independent living.”

It would also include 12 affordable plots.

The scheme will go before the planning committee for a final decision on Tuesday, July 6.