Retirement village plans for Navenby set for refusal

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 for a final decision on Tuesday, July 6.

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

A report into the project by planning officers 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 for 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.

“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.