'Ridiculous care home plan would destroy our estate's only green space' fume Scarborough residents
‘Desperate’ residents on a Scarborough estate have hit out at ‘ridiculous’ council plans to build a large care home near their homes.
Plans for a 60-bed care hub to speed up hospital discharges and alleviate shortfalls in North Yorkshire’s care capacity have been met with anger from residents in Scarborough, who are concerned about the impacts on local facilities and the environment.
The three-storey hub at Pelton Wheel Lane in Eastfield would offer short-term care for 20 residents, intermediate care for 25 residents, and dementia care for 15 residents as part of a £30m North Yorkshire Council plan to build care hubs in Scarborough and Harrogate.
However, neighbouring residents have raised concerns about the site’s viability and said that previously promised facilities had yet to be provided.
Amy Attridge said: “This estate is already very busy and this would make it unbearable.
"We moved on to the estate in 2017, and we were promised a children’s park and for it to be a lovely estate.
“This unfortunately has not happened.
"It is now 2026 and no children’s park has been erected, and the estate is going incredibly downhill, with antisocial behaviour at an all-time high.
"Putting a care home on this estate will increase traffic flow to ridiculous amounts due to the access road going through the houses, causing more and more issues for residents that already live here.”
More than a dozen objections have been submitted against the development, which North Yorkshire Council has said would make a significant contribution to the provision of specialist accommodation and health and social care infrastructure across the county.
If approved, the various types of accommodation would provide an important step between hospital care and independent living and would support individuals who are not ready to return home but do not require acute hospital treatment.
Resident Jane Ashworth said: “I am not opposed to the need for a care hub in the Scarborough area, as I know the significant strain that Scarborough Hospital is under.
“I fully support a care hub; however, I strenuously disagree with the choice of location.”
Ms Ashworth raised concerns about privacy and parking, road safety, light pollution, and strain on local infrastructure.
The care facility would offer external spaces for exercise, wellbeing, informal recreation, gardening and group activities, as well as resident and staff car parking and cycle parking spaces.
Another resident, Jessica Rogers, said: “My objections are grounded in the clear contravention of core planning policies within the Scarborough Borough Local Plan, the severe threat the development poses to child road safety, the profound loss of residential amenity for local families, and the destruction of the estate’s sole green space which has been left to nature.”
North Yorkshire Council, which is behind the scheme, faces growing pressure on its health and adult services budget driven by rising care costs, growing demand for specialist accommodation-based provision, and ongoing challenges relating to the quality, capacity, and long-term sustainability of existing care accommodation.
A funding review in 2023 identified a significant shortfall in intermediate care capacity across the county.
Another objector, Rebecca Taylor, said: “We residents use that bit of land to go on a stroll, to walk our dogs, and our kids use it to play on, and also in the winter when we had snow, I saw lots of families, my family included, enjoying the land.
“I think it is unfair that it should be taken away from us.”
The purpose-built facility will also provide a mix of short-stay, intermediate care, and dementia care accommodation.
The local planning authority has not set a date for deciding on the plans, which are open to representations from members of the public.