It is not controversial to say with an ageing population we need more care homes, yet when they are planned they can cause all sorts of local concerns, some justified, others less so.
To avoid difficulties it is essential that neighbours are fully consulted and from what I can see the developers of a new care home at the top of Colinton Road on the site of the old Salvation Army home are not meeting expectations.
Local people have approached me with concerns about increased car parking, both of visitors and staff to a facility which will have 50 residents, bigger than the one it replaces, but only eight places.
A new entrance off a previously quiet cul-de-sac will almost certainly become overspill parking.
First world problems, I hear you say, but neighbours should not be inconvenienced because of an expectation that people visiting elderly relatives should take the bus. How do the operators know where those relatives live?
Because the home is near to Napier University’s Craiglockhart campus, the area is already affected by random parking, but the last thing locals want is further expansion of the controlled parking zone already creeping up Colinton Road.
The developers, in my experience, have been unresponsive to calls and should take a leaf from the book of the operators of a new care home at the Wintons in Fairmilehead, which also had its issues.
But with exemplary consultation and a site manager engaging with local people their concerns are being properly addressed. It’s always good to talk.
