Plans for a new care home in a north-east village are facing the axe.
Councillors on the Buchan area committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the proposals for Mintlaw’s North Woods development, which could allow builders to advance with creating hundreds of houses.
And their agreement to drop all references to a care home within the masterplan means that Fraserburgh firm Colaren Homes would not have to provide space for the facility.
However, the news has sparked concerns among senior citizens in the community.
Last night, local councillor Jim Ingram said there were a “number of challenges” facing the community in the coming years.
He added: “We’re an aging population in Mintlaw. There are almost too many of us old-timers around, but how we deal with the elderly is becoming a challenging situation.
“I can’t really say too much on it at the moment, but there’s a number of angles that need to be looked at and there’s decisions to be made.”
Stephen Archer, the council’s director of infrastructure services, is urging the committee to sign off on the plan.
In his report, which will be discussed at Buchan House on Tuesday morning, he stated that the council currently has no plans to provide a care home within the community – despite the local development plan earmarking one for the area.
He said: “Whilst the local development plan makes reference to ‘with the inclusion of facilities for the elderly’, it is not clear what form those facilities should be.
“It could be that a single storey house would meet this provision, making a house more readily accessible.
“Given there are no plans to build a care home, it is considered reasonable to remove all references to it.”
Colaren had previously asked councillors to remove what it described as restrictive criteria surrounding the North Woods site.
The original proposal, encompassing a wider vision for land on the edge of the village, argued it had to contain detached, semi-detached, terraced, flats and affordable housing.
But, following discussions last year, the firm will be able to determine the house types based on economic factors at the time of construction.
