Mammoth Birkdale Care Home Plans Scrapped

by
12th May 2016

Photo: 8 Oxford Road

Mammoth Birkdale Care Home Plans Scrapped 

A conterverial plan to build a ‘mammoth’ care home at the site of the former home of Christiana Hartley has been scrapped.

8 Oxford Road, formerly where the home of famous welfare rights activist Christiana Hartley once lived, was set to become a brand new care home owned by the Athena group, adding to the already overflowing number of care homes and residential homes in the Birkdale area.

The original building was destroyed by a fire a number of years ago and has since been the subject of a number of failed bids to transform the land.

But the latest withdrawal of an application to build a huge five storey care home on the land has been welcomed by Dukes Ward councillor Tony Dawson, who said the Birkdale area is already amply catered for in terms of care homes.

A proposal was submitted to Sefton Council in September 2015 to build the care home but on May 5 a notice of the application’s withdrawal was formerly processed by the local authority’s planning department.

Councillor Tony Dawson said: “Controversial plans to build a mammoth care home on the site of the former home of Christiana Hartley at 8 Oxford Road have been ‘pulled’ by the developers.

“I am keen to ensure that we have sufficient hospital and community services to support the existing elderly population of this part of town which is already very high.

“I am concerned that further concentration of this kind of accommodation in one small corner of the borough would create excessive pressures on a variety of services.

“This is also a ‘gateway’ site for the West Birkdale Conservation Area and I believe it requires very sensitive development.

“The magnificent house at 8 Oxford Road mysteriously burned down a number of years ago. No one was ever prosecuted for the act.”

The home belonged to the Hartley family who are famous for their jam production and was formerly occupied by welfare activist Christiana.

Hartley served as a member of Southport’s Maternity and Child Welfare sub-committee.

In 1928 she proposed the construction of a fully equipped maternity hospital for the town.

The plans were accepted and the Christiana Hartley Maternity Hospital opened in May 1932 on Curzon Road. It remained on the Infirmary site until it was moved over to the new District General Hospital in 1999.

 

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