'Care village' that needs to care a bit more to convince the council

PLANS for a groundbreaking £7.5 million "care village" have been put on hold amid concerns that it will amount to little more than a fancy housing scheme.

The Kirk Park Care Village, near Inveresk Cemetery in Musselburgh, has been billed as the first of its kind in Scotland, and is designed to include two care homes, sheltered housing and a large community area with a gym, village shop, hairdresser and pharmacy.

However, East Lothian Council has expressed concern about the nine blocks of 93 flats to be built on the site, which planners say "would be indistinguishable from nine typical blocks of flats" unless the developer can ensure that its occupants require mandatory provision of medical care.

Council planners have advised that without such provision, the flats would fall into the category of standard housing, in contravention of the East Lothian Local Plan, which makes no provision for more housing in the area.

The company behind the scheme, Aisling Developments, maintains that care would be provided through security, transport, maintenance, refuse collection, 24-hour monitoring and emergency response and 3.5 hours of home help.

However, development management manager Brian Stalker rejected these provisions as "not significantly different from those available as home care to persons in their own homes".

He added: "It is recommended that planning permission be refused. In the circumstances of this case, the applicant has not satisfactorily demonstrated to the Planning Authority that the 93 flats of the nine flatted buildings proposed for the southern part of the application site would provide a use on the site other than a housing use.

"The adopted East Lothian Local Plan 2008 makes no provision for any housing development of the Kirk Park site and to grant planning permission for the 93 flats would be an unjustified departure from policy."

Councillors voted to continue their deliberations for further consultation with the developers to ensure that the development achieves "best value" for the community.

A council spokesman said: "In this case there was some debate about the 93 flats contained in the plans. The council didn't think there was enough care provision within that aspect of the development, given that it is supposed to be a 'care village'.

"The council came to the conclusion that they would like to see a greater care element, as they did not want to see the development become just another housing development under normal lines.

"There are no provisions for more standard flats in this area in the Local Plan, and these 93 flats did not conform to some of the requirements of care flats.

"While it has been stated that these flats would be for older people, we would like to ensure that the residents were also in need of some sort of care element as part of the conditions."