Plans to extend Derbyshire residential home specialising in dementia care tipped for approval

Ivonbrook Properties Ltd applied to Derbyshire Dales District Council to build a 16-bed dementia unit extension to the Ivonbrook Residential Care Home in Eversleigh Rise, Darley Bridge, close to Matlock. In August 2022, councillors rejected the plans due to the perceived lack of thought given to the impact on existing residents.

Now the care home’s owners have returned with tweaked versions of the same plans, still pitching for a 16-bed dementia unit and still seeking to provide four new jobs.

However, the proposed building has been moved 2.4 metres away from the boundary with properties in Eversleigh Rise and bedroom windows on that side of the development have been moved, along with staff parking moving to the northwest, away from homes.

The proposed building would increase the capacity to 56 beds and would be 4.7 metres tall at its highest point, half a metre higher than the existing complex, but it would remain a single-storey facility, dug into the bank of the sloping site to reduce its overall height and impact.

South Darley Parish Council has objected to the tweaked plans, saying they are still too large for the proposed plot and would still have a “severe impact” on neighbouring residents.

It writes: “As with the previous application, the proposed development is considered too large for the location, taking up almost all the grounds surrounding the existing care home. The extension would increase the footprint of the care home buildings by about 80 per cent and would eliminate the area of grassland south of the existing home. Only a thin strip of trees would be left around the building.

“There would be an increase in traffic to and from the site from both staff and visitors. Lime Kiln Lane, which has several residential dwellings, is not suitable nor safe for any increase in traffic volumes. Residents of Lime Kiln Lane already suffer from the constant use and noise of large vehicles delivering goods to and from the site.

A total of nine objection letters have been submitted to the council by residents opposing the scheme.

The applicants provided information to support their plans which show there is a projected 74 per cent increase in Dales residents with dementia between 2017 and 2040.

They say this includes the need for 298 residential care beds and 225 nursing care beds – totalling 522 beds – by 2040.

The applicants also say the extension would provide a “more sustainable commercial future for the facility at a time of substantial rising costs and into the future” by reducing its ratio of staff to residents from 1.3 staff for every one resident to one member of staff to every one resident.

Council officers, recommending approval, wrote: “The local planning authority acknowledges that there is a recognised need for registered care accommodation within the Derbyshire Dales area.

“The proposal will make a significant contribution to addressing this need with a specialised dementia unit to increase the viability of an existing good-quality care home adjacent to the third-tier settlement (in order of priority within the Dales, after towns and larger villages) where the council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of housing.”