Is it chocs away for housing?
HOMES PLANNED FOR DERELICT CHOCOLATE FACTORY SITE
PLANS for 60 homes specifically for people aged 55 and above have been submitted for an old chocolate factory in a Derbyshire town.
The application, from Derbyshire County Council, would see a 60-flat complex built on the former Thorntons site off Derwent Street, in Belper.
A new care home and library have already been built by the council on the former Thorntons site, leaving a vacant area which had been due to become a health centre run by Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust.
However, the trust pulled its plans due to the size required for the health centre, choosing instead to pursue a project on the current Belper Clinic site in Derby Road, next to Babington Hospital.
Now the county council has filed plans to Amber Valley Borough Council to build a two and threestorey complex of supported living homes for people aged 55 and above on the remaining portion of the Thorntons site.
Access to the flat complex would stem off the road currently used for Morrisons, Aldi and B&M, the orangery Bookcafe and the De Bradelei Mill Shopping Village.
A section of this route closest to the former Thorntons site, alongside the Belper Central Methodist Church, would be widened from a single-track road to two lanes.
The plans show that the site would have 30 car parking spaces and 20 spots for bikes, with a footpath, “landscaped gardens” and trees around the entire perimeter of the flat complex.
It would also include a number of electric vehicle charging stations. Two redundant workshop units on the site would be demolished if the plans are approved.
Documents filed by the council as part of the application say: “There is a need to significantly increase the provision of specialist housing for people with complex needs to deliver equitable provision of accommodation. Currently there is no provision for this type of accommodation within Belper. There are currently 33 people with complex needs in inpatient settings who need to be re-housed in safe, appropriate accommodation.”