Decision expected over fate of care home
Old Deer site to be put on market if plans are backed
Published:
A north-east care home controversially closed by Aberdeenshire Council will be put on the market if proposals are approved this week.
Despite a three-year campaign to save it, the former St Drostan’s care home at Old Deer was shut in September after its remaining elderly tenants were moved to new accommodation.
Aberdeenshire Council decided to close the premises after it emerged £1.7million of upgrades were needed to allow the building to comply with disability and fire regulations.
Tomorrow members of the council’s Buchan area committee will be asked to declare the building surplus to requirements, paving the way for it to be sold.
The site at Abbey Street has been offered to other council departments, but no one has come up with a use for it.
Councillors on the Buchan area committee had been asked to approve the plans earlier this year, but deferred their decision to ensure the village’s recycling facilities, located at St Dorstan’s, are moved to another location. The home could be knocked down and replaced with up to 20 houses.
Campaigners who tried to block the closure claimed the council had broken a contract with residents and argued it was forcing tenants out against their will.
Members of the Buchan area committee agreed unanimously last summer that residents should be allowed to leave in their own time.
They argued a September deadline set by the local authority was unacceptable.
However, days later, the fate of St Drostan’s was sealed as Aberdeenshire councillors voted to close the “out-of-date” building.
They were told that the longer the home was kept open, the longer the council was in breach of standard regulations regarding the Disability Discrimination Act and fire regulations. The council is striving to reduce spending by almost £2million on the housing and social work service this year, and it has saved £150,000 following the closure of St Drostan’s.
Councillors will hear in their meeting that an alternative site at the village’s Kemp Hall has been found for the recycling facilities.
