A NEW care home in Helensburgh should be built near the town’s Waitrose supermarket rather than next to Hermitage Park, neighbours of the town centre site have insisted.

Helensburgh Community council called a meeting of residents of Prince Albert Terrace and Birch Cottages to gauge opinion on Simply UK’s revised plans for a 64-bedroom care home next to the park, lodged last moth with Argyll and Bute Council.

Objections have continued to mount up to the revised application in spite of the developer’s amendments to the original plan, with 52 currently published on the council’s website.

And it was suggested that the home could instead be sited adjacent to the supermarket. One possible location there is the old Sawmill Field, where plans to locate over 100 new houses were recently scrapped by Cala Homes.

READ MORE: CALA Homes pulls out of major Helensburgh housing development

Helensburgh Community Council member Nigel Millar also said the meeting had called for a public hearing of the council’s planning, protective services and licensing [PPSL] committee to determine the application.

Mr Millar said: “It is accepted that there is a need for such accommodation in Helensburgh, but this would be the wrong site for it.

“The developers should be encouraged to look at new sites, and one that was mentioned was the site opposite Waitrose.

“While we felt there had been some cosmetic improvements, the fundamental objections to the original application had not gone away.

“We felt the building was too big for the site and would have a strong negative impact on Birch Cottage residents next door.

“It was far too close to Prince Albert Terrace and was totally inappropriate to what is required for new buildings in a conservation area. It is also too close to the category A war memorial in Hermitage Park.

“There have been many objections so far to the revised application and the community council is calling for a public hearing of the PPSL committee at which the decision is being made.”

The revised design has already been branded as unsuitable in a report by a design and conservation officer from the council.

READ MORE: New Helensburgh care home design 'not suitable', says council official

Bars and a beauty salon are among the plans for the care home, along with 25 parking spaces – a number which is also of concern to the community council.

Mr Millar added: “We feel that 25 spaces will not be enough as the facility would be staffed 24 hours a day.

“Also, when the care home is being built, where are the builders going to store all their materials? That is also of great concern to residents.”

A design statement for the planned home by DTA Architects says the proposed building “will not interrupt views of or to” the war memorial, and adds: “To consider that the proposal would create a dominant addition to the skyline cannot be sustained given that the immediately adjacent residences on Prince Albert Terrace will remain the tallest and most dominant buildings on the skyline.”