Plans revealed to turn Mansfield property into children's care home

The plans, submitted by Safe As Houses Property Investment, would see the property on Lichfield Lane converted into a home for a maximum of four children, aged 10-18, with staff present on site at all times to provide assistance.

The home would be managed by Keys Group.

The application is supported by the D2N2 local enterprise partnership across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Representatives of all Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Derbyshire and Derby councils have sent a joint letter to Mansfield Council’s planning committee supporting the plans.

In it, they said: “Our four councils work collaboratively to ensure there are sufficient high-quality local homes for our children in care.

“We currently have shortfall of homes across our local area and welcome this proposal as it will help address this.

“We are fully aware historic perceptions exist around the institutional nature of a children’s home which are often misplaced.

“We’d wish to reassure that how a modern children’s home looks and operates on a day-to-day basis is designed to replicate a modern family home environment.

“This results in minimising any potential impacts on the properties of neighbours, such as the volume of traffic and vehicle movements, and the overall ‘amenity’ of the area.”

They said education watchdog Ofsted would monitor the home.

They said: “Ofsted, which regulates and inspects children’s homes, requires this and the home will successfully meet all of Ofsted’s requirements in order to operate.”