Flats plan for former care home (From Wharfedale Observer)

Flats plan for former care home

8:50am Saturday 16th June 2012 in News By Jonathan Redhead, Ilkley/Otley Reporter

A former care home for the elderly, which closed after the owners went into administration, could be transformed into nine flats.

Last autumn 22 residents – including 108-year-old Daisy Rayner – were forced to move into new homes when Fezdene Limited, which owned the Franklyn in Easby Drive, Ilkley, suffered financial difficulties.

The home closed, but now it is likely to be given a new lease of life with an application to turn it into flats recommended for approval at a meeting of Bradford Council’s area plann-ing panel (Keighley and Shipley) next week.

A report to the panel says the proposal should be backed by councillors, despite six objections from local residents and ward councillors Anne Hawkesworth and Martin Smith, who claim the application amounts to over-development in the IIlkley Conservation Area.

However, the report backs the plans, submitted by law firm Candelisa Thorpe Arch LLP, subject to several conditions, including details of materials and a tree protection plan.

“The impact of the amended scheme has been assessed, and it is considered that it will have no significant adverse effects on the local amenity, the amenity of occupiers of neighbouring properties, highway safety, protected trees or the character and appearance of the Ilkley Conservation Area,” the report states.

Councillors on the panel were due to meet at 10am yesterday in Keighley Town Hall to discuss the application.

New homes were found for all former Franklyn residents, including Mrs Rayner, who is now 109 and lives at Hollycroft care home in Hebers Ghyll Drive, Ilkley.

She is believed to be the 15th oldest living person in the United Kingdom.

The Franklyn, a Victorian home, was converted into a care home for the elderly during the 1980s after a large two-storey extension was added.