Cleveleys property formerly set for children's home to be sold at auction

Resort care company Sandcastle Care was granted planning permission by Wyre Council on July 11, 2019 to turn a property on West Drive, Cleveleys, into a children's home for up to four children.

But since the application was approved, the five-bedroom detached house has stood empty.

Now, following a recent refurbishment, it will be sold at auction with the care home planning permission still in place.

Auction House North West will facilitate the online auction between December 15 and 17, with a guide price of £299,000.

Plans for the children’s care home, along with another on Lawsons Road in Thornton, were met with opposition last year from local residents concerned about antisocial behaviour.

It came as a result of antisocial behaviour incidents, including one at another home run by Sandcastle Care on Rossall Road in Cleveleys, when children got out through a window and allegedly vandalised a bus.

Neighbours of the proposed children's home properties voiced their concerns about potential nuisances caused by the new homes’ young residents at a neighbourhood police meeting at Poolfoot Farm, Thornton in July 2019.

PC Lorna Bolton, from the Thornton Cleveleys neighbourhood policing team, said at the meeting that the vast majority of incidents she had dealt with involved young people from local families - not children from a care facility.

The property listing, which showed that refurbishment work had converted one of its five bedrooms on the ground floor into two offices, stated it "would suit an extended family home or C2 use."