Plans for Hemel Hempstead house to become children's home

The Thumpers property's change of use - to become Bethel Children’s Care - was approved last Wednesday (November 8), subject to a number of conditions.

Firstly, the house must care for children up to the age of 18, and development must begin with three years of the application being granted.

The maximum number of people residing at the property must not exceed six, and the development must be carried out in accordance with the approved plans.

An access and design statement included within the application states that a maximum of three children will be resident at the site at any one time.

Plans for the property in Thumpers, Hemel Hempstead. (Image: Dacorum Borough Council / DAN Architectural Services)

The home will have a focus on young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The statement continues: "We propose to cater for young people from the ages of eight to 15 years on admission as stated above, for which they will attend local schools in the area, appropriate for their ages and educational needs.

"Given the nature of the needs of the young people, their home (which is what the proposed development would be for) needs to be located in a calming, quiet area where the young people can flourish."

The property is located in Thumpers, Hemel Hempstead. (Image: Google Maps)

A single objection was made to the application, which detailed concerns of parking in the area and the number of bedrooms at the site.

The objection reads: "There are not two parking spaces within the property boundary.

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"Parking would have to be on the main street, which is already extremely overstretched and hard to park, resulting in people parking on public footpaths which is dangerous.

"If three members of staff each have a vehicle plus a minibus and, taking into account any visitors, even if there were two spaces it would still cause issues.

"The number of bedrooms for the number of people living there is not a very good ratio."

The application can be viewed using reference 23/01735/FUL on Dacorum Borough Council's planning portal: www.dacorum.gov.uk/home/planning-development/planning-applications/search-planning-applications