A NEW care home will be built on the last remaining part of the city’s former park and ride site after councillors approved plans.

A plan for a 74-bed care home at the old park and ride site in John Comyn Drive off Droitwich Road was backed by Worcester City Council’s planning committee at a virtual meeting last Thursday (April 23).

Despite backing the plans, councillors did raise some concerns about only 28 car parking spaces being included.

Councillor Mike Johnson said that if the majority of people in the care home had dementia then not enough car parking spaces had been provided for staff and visitors and it would be a “tight squeeze.”

Cllr Roger Berry said it was a “very important” development but there were some concerns about car parking that needed answers.

In the planning application by developer Prime and care home provider Sanders Senior Living, it said residents would not own cars and staff would be encouraged to use public transport.

The care home provider had also looked at car parking numbers at its other sites to determine how many were needed.

Shift patterns would spread traffic generated by the care home across the day, the application said.

Cllr Jo Hodges said the care home was “much-needed” in the city and was satisfied with the number of car parking spaces provided.

Individual rooms would all have en-suite wet rooms with some rooms having personal living space for couples if required.

The city council’s planning committee also approved a plan for the city’s third Lidl supermarket in Droitwich Road at the same meeting.

The new care home and supermarket would be the latest in a long list of potential developments in and around Droitwich Road including an expanded 785-plot Muslim cemetery, a new state-of-the-art hockey centre as well as the North Worcester Primary Academy which opened last September.