New flats to be built on on controversial site (From Sutton Guardian)

Sutton Council approve plans to build homes on controversial site in Sutton

10:40am Friday 11th January 2013 in News By James Pepper

How the home used to look in 2009

Plans to build nine houses on the site of a former home for severely disabled adults have been approved despite the council receiving scores of complaints.

Planning developers want to demolish the existing buildings in Cedar Close which, up until 2009, housed a tight-knit community of 15 adults with severe and mental handicaps.

When Sutton Council moved the community out three years ago, relatives of the residents mounted an unsuccessful campaign to try and stop the plans.

An application by developers Boultbee for three one bedroomed, seven four bedroomed and one five bedroom houses was approved by Sutton Council in June 2011.

However as the council received more than ten complaints about the plans, developers had to report to the council's development control committee on Wednesday before it was rubber stamped.

After 42 letters were sent to nearby residents, 28 replies were received - 20 of which were in the form of a letter raising objections.

Among the complaints were objections to the height and bulk of the proposed buildings, an increase in traffic and the new gated estate would be "out of keeping with the character of Salisbury Road."

The development control committee approved the plans on Wednesday (January 9), but the commitee said the site cannot be gated and developers must plant semi-mature trees.

A council spokesman said: "The former health service patients of Cedar Close were successfully transferred in 2009 into their own bespoke accommodation designed to meet their individual needs.

"The Orchard Hill resettlement was independently researched and attracted national and international interest for the positive outcomes achieved."