Residents' fears over Thornton-Cleveleys children’s care home plans

Neighbours of the proposed properties voiced their concerns about potential nuisances caused by the new homes’ young residents at a neighbourhood police meeting on Wednesday evening at Poolfoot Farm, Thornton.

Wyre Council has already approved applications from Sandcastle Care Ltd to convert properties on West Drive, Cleveleys, and Lawsons Road, Thornton, into children's homes for four and three young people respectively.

But residents at the meeting highlighted an incident at another home run by the firm, on Rossall Road, Cleveleys, when children got out through a window and allegedly vandalised a bus on July 10.

Daniel Thornton said at the meeting: "There have always been issues with that home. Whether it is kids running through the town centre in summer, or in and out of the road.

"If these people are at risk, my worry is why are they able to get out of a window? Why are they allowed to go out into the community at one o’clock in the morning?”

And one West Drive resident added: "We've had one of them on my street, and I don't want it again.”

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

Addressing residents' concerns, Caroline Mathers, operations manager at Sandcastle Care, said: “The children we are looking after, whether you see them as vulnerable or not, there is a reason they are in children’s homes.

"We are not secured children’s homes. We cannot lock them in. We can do as much as we can to prevent them from going out, but some risk assessments show that some children can go out, and they can go out on their own. "

She added that the incident on July 10 was a very rare occurrence and had been treated as an emergency by staff.