Former care home to be converted into flats

Plans have been approved to transform a former care home near Calne into flats.

Wiltshire Council has given the go-ahead for the former Bethesda Care Home in Derry Hill to become nine residential units.

The application submitted by New Key Development stated that the dwellings will be “sympathetic to their context and respectful of neighbouring properties”.

Calne Without Parish Council was in support of the proposal, noting that it would help to address the “shortage of one-bedroom accommodation in Derry Hill”.

According to the plans, the conversion will fundamentally retain the existing building in its current form.

The application read: “The proposed retrofit, including an upgrade of the building envelope and the installation of renewable technologies, alongside renewable energy supplies, will reduce the carbon emissions of the existing property bringing about its sustainable reuse.”

It added: “The proposals provide an opportunity to develop sustainable, energy efficient new homes on an existing, previously developed, brownfield site.

“The development will remove the uncertainty over the future use of this redundant site and improve the wider security of the area through removal of redundant buildings.”

Wiltshire Council informed New Key Development of its approval on Monday, February 17.

Also this week, Wiltshire Council granted planning permission for the redevelopment of a farmyard to provide 14 new dwellings.

They will be built on a 2.34-hectare site at Townsend Farm Yard on Poulshot Road, outside Devizes.

Although the scheme was given the go-ahead at a planning meeting in 2024, the wording of certain conditions has only just been signed off.

According to the plans sent in by applicant Gaiger Bros, a residential development is the most logical and only suitable re-use of the site after the dairy farm closed in 2021.

They stated: “Due to these constraints and the investment required to resolve, the yard is unsuitable and unviable for agricultural use.”

The applicants noted their aim was to create a “bespoke, high-quality net zero redevelopment of this redundant farm site, which provides an attractive place, responds to local needs and capitalises on opportunities to provide better linkages, improvements to drainage, landscaping and biodiversity”.

Poulshot Parish Council expressed appreciation for the “extensive consultation” that had taken place on the project.

The work will require the removal of the redundant agricultural buildings, silage clamps and slurry tanks.

The traditional coach house that fronts onto Poulshot Road will be retained and converted.

Finally, Wiltshire Council has received plans for a community-owned solar PV project on the roof of a school.

Bath & West Community Energy has proposed the scheme at St Laurence School on Ashley Road in Bradford On Avon.

The application states: “The development at St Laurence School will be a community-owned rooftop solar PV project managed by Bath & West Community Energy.

“Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) is a not-for-profit community benefit society founded in 2010, with the objective of taking positive action in the face of the climate emergency and growing energy insecurity.

“The installation is fully-funded by BWCE from community investment (through BWCE’s community share offer), so there is zero capital outlay for the school.

“Any surplus income goes into our Community Benefit Fund which gives grants to local green, decarbonisation and fuel poverty projects.”

It adds: “The total array size will be 191.57kWp, and mounted on roofs covering an area of 923.6m².

“Using a year’s worth of electrical consumption data, we calculate the site will use 69.3% of the solar electricity generated.

“Anything not used on site will be exported to the grid.

“We estimate this community solar array to save over 38 tonnes of carbon in the first year for the school.”

Wiltshire Council is expected to make a decision by mid-April.