Planning consent secured for 84-bed care home

Care provider, Springfield Healthcare, has received permission for an 84-bed care home and eight senior living eco-homes on the Mercure Hotel site in Wetherby.

This consent sits alongside a new Lidl superstore scheme that the supermarket operator has worked with Springfield on throughout.

Springfield is due to begin development works in April 2026, with a view to opening in late November 2027.

The care home will deliver residential and dementia care for older people.

Chairman at Springfield Healthcare, Graeme Lee, said: “Our vision has always been to create amazing care environments, with amazing care, right in the heart of the local communities we serve, and the Wetherby site is ideal for achieving these goals.

“Being a true gateway site means we can once again put older people at the forefront of our endeavours and allow them to make the best informed choice to come and be a part of their next stage of their lives.

“The scheme has received phenomenal support from the local community, and we are extremely grateful for this as we will now be able to meet the increasing demand for high quality care provision in the town.”

The Wetherby site is the second new build care home scheme Springfield is developing following the sale of six care homes and villages to a large US healthcare investor in October 2024.

This September will see the start of work on the Grove House intergenerational care village development, which is on a six acre site in the centre of Harrogate.

Grove House, a grade II listed building built in 1745 by Sampson Fox, one of Harrogate’s most famous industrialists and philanthropists, will be turned into a care community housing 24 luxury apartments for the over 65s, a 67-bed care home and eight eco houses.

Plans for the Wetherby site and Grove House will see investment of over £25m over the next two years and the creation of over 250 jobs across the two sites.