Care home for children with autism and learning disabilities planned for site of former school

Westwood School at Blithbury, near Rugeley, closed more than 20 years ago and permission was granted last year to demolish buildings on the site.

Now plans have been submitted to Lichfield District Council to build a new residential care home on the land, which is next to the independent Rugeley School operated by Aspris Children’s Services.

The specialist education and residential care services provider is seeking permission to build the new care home to replace an existing facility.

A design and access statement submitted as part of the application said: “Mayfield House near Colwich, is to be compulsory purchased as part of the HS2 Phase 2a construction works.

"As such, there is an urgent need to ‘re-provide’ this accommodation in the local area so to continue to provide a continuity of care for the children residing in that home.

“The application site is close to the existing care home which it will replace and has the benefit of being able to co-locate with the existing Rugeley School which is immediately to the south of the application site.

"Children currently living at Mayfield House already attend the adjacent Rugeley School; accordingly there is considerable benefit in seeking to locate the new care home adjacent to the existing school.

“Mayfield House is located in a rural area which currently provides the children residing there with a calm and tranquil living environment with good access to outside space.

"The nature and quality of their living environment is important in minimising the effects of their autism and learning disabilities (and) It is therefore important to seek to find a similar rural and peaceful living environment for the replacement care home.”

Four detached two-storey six-bed residential care buildings are proposed for the former Westwood School site, as well as a single-storey support hub building. Mayfield House is registered to accommodate 23 eight-18-year-olds and is open 52 weeks a year.

The design and access statement added: “What is proposed at the former Westwood School is to replicate the nature and form of accommodation which Mayfield House currently provides, but to do so in a way that will improve and enhance the living environment of the children and not be restricted as Mayfield House has been by the existing built form.

"In particular the desire is to provide some separation for the constituent parts of the care home buildings to give the children more space and a greater feeling of living as a family unit.”