Retirement home plan for Travis Perkins site near Market Harborough town centre

A £10m retirement complex has been approved by council planners for a brownfield site near Market Harborough town centre.
Churchill Retirement Living have acquired land on Connaught Road in Market Harborough.
PICTURE: ANDREW CARPENTER NNL-170410-101601005Churchill Retirement Living have acquired land on Connaught Road in Market Harborough.
PICTURE: ANDREW CARPENTER NNL-170410-101601005
Churchill Retirement Living have acquired land on Connaught Road in Market Harborough. PICTURE: ANDREW CARPENTER NNL-170410-101601005

The Churchill Retirement Living complex will occupy the former Travis Perkins Builders’ Yard in Clarence Street.

The site was most recently a car park, used mainly by commuters from the nearby station.

The plan would involve the erection of 44 retirement living apartments, including communal facilities, car parking and landscaping.

The original scheme had a building that extended up to four storeys and contained 49 apartments.

Local residents generally approved of the plan, but said the building was too high.

Clarence Street resident Robert Harris told the Mail: “As a general scheme I really like it, but I do have a few misgivings.

“They’re suggesting a four-storey structure right in front of my place, which could mean people being able to look straight into our front bedrooms.”

The approved plan is three storeys high, with five fewer apartments

At Tuesday night’s Planning Committee meeting, Cllr Janette Ackerley welcomed the retirement complex scheme, saying the rundown site was “desperately in need of improvement”.

The project’s agent Chris Geddes said the plan made “efficient use of a brownfield site”. Harborough district has the oldest population in Leicestershire, and the proportion of older people in Harborough is on the increase.

Andrew Burgess, planning director of Churchill Retirement Living, said: “There is a real need for private retirement housing in Market Harborough.

“Our development will go some way to increasing access to this type of housing for local residents.”

He said the new apartments should also free up under-occupied larger homes in the area, as older people downsized.

And he added: “Owners of the new apartments will be within easy walking distance of shops, restaurants and other amenities.”