DETAILS about a children’s home at the top of Scapegoat Hill can be revealed – weeks after the plan was submitted.
Meadows Care Ltd, based in Rochdale, applied to Kirklees Council for planning permission for change of use consent from an existing residential home to a children’s home.
It relates to a property called The Noddle, off Halifax Road.
But due to a missing public notice and lack of publicly-available detail about the plans, Kirklees Council yesterday announced it would delay the end date for public consultation.
Residents living nearby could be none the wiser of the plan – for there appears to be no public planning notices around the property and specific details of the plan will only be published today.
The Examiner’s reporter walked around the area of The Noddle and found just one planning notice – which dates back to 2010 and relates to an old application at a neighbouring property.
A spokeswoman for Kirklees Council said they would replace the missing public notice, which had been put up next to the access into the site on April 9.
And while the application was published on April 5, it will only be today before people living nearby can find out the full details of the proposal.
The application itself contains little detail other than the proposal and staff numbers.
However, the applicant’s agent yesterday said a Design and Access statement was submitted, which contains detail about the home.
At 12.50pm yesterday that statement was not publicly available.
The council spokeswoman said: “Change of use applications don’t need a design and access statement to be validated but the applicant has supplied this and it will be on the website by today.”
The council provided the Examiner with the applicant’s statement, which reveals Meadows Care Ltd wants the Scapegoat Hill property to become a home for care, therapy and education for two children with six adults employed.
The statement says: “The aim... is to create a domestic environment for young people where they can also receive education and therapeutic care as necessary.
“This requires a large residential property in order to provide adequate sleeping and living accommodation which allows a degree of privacy for residents as well as separate education/therapy rooms.”
The application was originally open to public comments until next Tuesday, April 30, but a council spokeswoman said: “Because of the disappearance of the site notice and technical issues with the website, the consultation will be extended for a further 21 days.”
