PLANS for a 72-bedroom acute care complex in Crewe are set to get the go ahead.

The three-story care home is proposed by Chester-based care property company Liberty Care Developments on land at Basford off Jack Mills Way.

There will be 24-hour residential care on site, including provision for elderly nursing care and the care of those residents affected by dementia.

The all-purpose complex includes lounges, dining rooms, a café, library and audio/visual room as well as activity and games facilities. And there will be landscaped gardens and outdoor terraces, while other facilities include a staff room, a kitchen and a laundry room.

Outline planning permission already exists on the plot of land, which is off the roundabout junction of Crewe Road, Gresty Road and Jack Mills Way.

This had been allocated in the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy for commercial use, which would have allowed retail outlets, restaurant/takeaways, a hotel or car showroom to be built.

Planners say that while the proposed residential does not square with the outline permission, local plan objectives have been met by the establishment of "local centre" further south of the location near to the A500.

The proposed alternative use as a care home is a "justifiable departure from adopted policy", they say.

And they state: "It [the care home] will therefore make a valuable contribution towards housing for elderly people within the borough, as well as continuity in their care."

Shavington-Cum-Gresty parish councillors flagged up concerns over access to the home's on-site car park from part of an original section of Crewe Road, which is now a cul de sac.

They say the car parking is "inadequate and does not appear to be accessible". Other objections received include one resident who claimed the care home will be "overbearing and an overdevelopment of this small site".

But planning officers have recommended that Cheshire East's southern planning committee approve the scheme at its meeting next Wednesday, March 31.