Plans for a multi-million pound new Elgin care home are on track.
Last year, Parklands Care Homes sought planning permission in principle for a new care home on a gateway site next to the A96.
The new care home is expected to provide dozens of jobs for the area and boost the local supply chain.
The proposal is for a 40-bed, two-storey care home with secure landscaped gardens on vacant ground to the west of the Eight Acres Hotel on Morriston Road.
There have been three objections lodged.
But now, the new care home has been recommended for approval, ahead of a planning meeting next Monday.
There would be ample parking for staff and visitors and a biomass facility would provide renewable energy.
The new Elgin facility on Morriston Road would be Parklands’ sixth Moray care home. It currently has homes in Aberlour, Keith and three in Buckie.
Moray Council’s development and building standards manager Beverley Smith said in a report to councillors the proposal complies with the development plan, National Planning Framework 4 and the Moray Local Development Plan 2020.
What are the concerns over new Elgin care home?
One objector who has lived in a house next to the Eight Acres Hotel since 1999 and
has been subject to noise from vehicles servicing the hotel.
They think this care home proposal will exacerbate this.
Another said the trees bounding the houses to the north are resident to red squirrels and should not be felled.
It comes as a group of trees and bushes next to the function suite of the hotel would be removed to accommodate this new care home.
‘Need for more care homes’
Meanwhile, Elgin Community Council said: “There is definitely a need for more care homes in the area.”
However they insisted the proximity to trees should be considered in detailed design, especially in respect of maintenance and overshadowing.
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