Closed Hartlepool care home could be transformed into flats under new plans

The site of the Four Winds Residential Home, Elwick Road, Hartlepool, has been earmarked for redevelopment.

Four Winds, in Elwick Road, Hartlepool, closed in December 2015 when its parent group Four Winds Care Ltd went out of business.

Owner Matt Matharu was jailed for eight months in February that year for failing to protect dementia sufferer Norah Elliott, 90, who climbed out of a bedroom window of Parkview care home in Seaton Carew and fell to her death.

He was found guilty of two breaches under the Health and Safety at Work Act following a trial at Teesside Crown Court and also ordered to pay the prosecution’s £70,213 costs.

Her home, along with Admiral Court Nursing Home in Cleveland Road and Highnam Hall, in Park Avenue, also closed.

Now the Four Winds site could be redeveloped under plans put into Hartlepool Borough Council.

They set out how the 23-bedroomed residential care home could be turned into 11 self-contained apartments.

The designs details how a new pitched roof could be built over a single-storey extension, with a detached garage to be knocked down, a single storey house constructed and 15 parking spaces created.

If approved, the developer would turn it into six one-bedroomed apartments, four with two bedrooms and one three bedroom homes, which would be sold or let.

The proposals say the building is limited in its use due to the size of the building and its residential location.

Agent Phil Skinner, of CAD Design & Build Services Ltd, who is acting on behalf of a J Borthwick, has told planners: “The loft of the main building has been developed to increase the number of apartments to make this development financially viable.

“We have considered the access directly onto Elwick Road and feel the access onto Park Drive more suitable.

“However, we have retained both access points to provide flexibility to occupants, as this was also utilised by the previous occupants.

“We feel none of the alterations will contribute to additional noise or disturbance to the neighbouring properties.

“Existing parking areas and vehicle routes have not been changed.

“The number of bedrooms had reduced from its original total.”

The application adds that no building work will affect any trees of merit, with a separate application to be submitted to prune trees following comments from a neighbour of the site.