Stafford Borough Council extend access across Tilling Drive for care home construction

Stafford Borough Council has granted an access extension to LNT Developments who are building a new 66 bedroom care home on recreation land sold off on TIlling Drive in Stone.

Last week, letters sent to residents email inboxes advising them that the access across the playing field will be extended until the summer. This is to allow construction to continue on the site and for the permanent access to be created out onto the A34.

Dear ………,

I wanted to give you an update on the LNT development at Tilling Drive. The County Council’s Highways Team and LNT have only recently finalised the Section 278 agreement which will enable the new, permanent entrance to the care home facility to be constructed off the A34.

The Borough Council had made clear to both parties the importance of completing this new entrance before the end of the six-month period of the temporary access granted to LNT along the edge of the playing field on Tilling Drive. This six month period ended on the 30th April and it is frustrating that the new entrance has not yet been constructed.

The Borough Council has considered the best course of action and has agreed to extend this temporary access so as not to prolong the build period and therefore the disruption to residents, by a further three months. Given this, we have reluctantly agreed to extend the Licence to grant LNT temporary access to the site as per the current arrangements for period from 1st May to the 21st July 2021 in order to enable the new, permanent access to be constructed. As part of the Licence agreement LNT are obliged to make good the temporary accessway by removal of the fencing and reinstatement of the grassed area, remove the portable security cabin and to reinstate the fencing adjacent to the playground prior to the 21st July.

In addition, as a gesture of goodwill, LNT have also agreed that at the end of the licence LNT will resurface the car park with a porous tarmacadam surface. I appreciate that this situation is not ideal and the Borough Council has done everything in its power to avoid the need to extend the temporary access arrangements, and we have done so for the minimum possible period.

As part of the new extension, LNT has agreed to resurface the Tilling Drive car park and will also need to make good the areas that they’ve built their temporary roadway over.

Around a third of the land at Tilling Drive was contentiously sold off by Stafford Borough Council – for just over £1m, with the sale completing in October 2020. The money raised from the sale has been earmarked for improving sporting and recreation facilities within the town.

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The majority of the money has been set aside for the phase 2 development on Westbridge Park, where we are expected to see a new “destination park” created along with canal and riverside walks. In March Stafford Borough Council issued A Little Bit of Stone with an update on the phase 2 development, which disappointingly states that construction of phase 2 won’t begin until 2022.

The remainder is due to be spent improving the pitch and changing facilities at the Tilling Drive site, however, once again Stafford Borough Council haven’t issued any timelines for these plans to be enacted.

A massive thanks to Jasper Hyde who has shared these aerial photographs of the construction site.