Plan for Grimsby Bird’s Eye factory site gets green light

Plans for a 70-bed care home on the former Birds Eye factory site off Ladysmith Road, Grimsby, have been approved.

Country Court Care Ltd’s application for the three-storey care home and an accompanying two-storey block of eight one-bed apartments has been approved under delegated planning officer powers. No individuals objected to the plans.

It is anticipated the care home will create 35 jobs, 25 full-time. Each of the care home’s three floors will have a medicine room, nurses’ stations and day space areas. There will also be an open ‘winter garden’ area on the top two floors.

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Birds Eye closed in 2005 and a huge fire two years later destroyed much of the old factory, with the site cleared after this. In 2017, initial approval was given for 184 homes, 76 apartments and 1,000 sq m of commercial space at the Birds Eye site. Some but not all, of these homes have since been built.

The care home and apartment block are to be at the corner of the site where Ladysmith Road meets Clee Drive. High density apartments and the commercial space was originally intended here. But no-one took this up.

The applicant’s agent The Planning Hub state in a planning document for the care home: “Despite the long-term marketing of the overall site (phased) there has been no interest in the development of the application site for apartments and commercial/retail premises.”

A car park with 30 spaces, including EV charging points, is planned, as well. The Planning Hub describes Country Court Care Ltd in a document as “experienced care home operators” who are fully aware of increased need for care homes in towns and villages that they have premises in. It already runs care homes in Lincolnshire, Peterborough and Sheffield.

“The proposal would not harm the area character nor the amenity of nearby neighbours and in fact, may support the local businesses in the area,” concluded council planning, in their decision to approve the application.