Former hotel to be demolished to make way for residential care home in Welsh county

Alec Doyle, Local democracy reporter

A hotel in Northop Hall that has been closed for 10 years could be demolished to make way for a £16 million residential care home.

Flintshire County Council’s Planning Committee will consider a recommendation by officers to flatten of Plas Ifan and build an 80-bed residential care facility.

The proposed building feature communal dining rooms, lounge facilities, cafe, cinema room, hair and beauty salon, physiotherapy rooms and communal gardens.

Applicant Bod Hotels says if approved, the plans would create 80 jobs.

The mid-19th Century property – believed to have been built originally around 1839 by the Astbury Family – was a family home and guesthouse from the 1950s.

By the 1980s it had become a hotel and restaurant with a secondary building on the site, which is also proposed for demolition, operating initially as a car garage and later a mechanical engineering centre.

A number of previous planning applications for the site have been rejected, with 170 residents of the village opposing an earlier plan to demolish the hotel and build a care home in 2021 and schemes to put 24 homes on the site also being rejected.

This application has not received the same level of objection as those historic applications – receiving just two objections from the community. Planning officers for the authority have recommended the proposals are approved this time.

“The development is considered acceptable and satisfactory from a development management perspective in terms of is scale, design, layout and vehicular access,” wrote Flintshire’s Chief Officer for Place and Growth David Fitzsimon.

“The applicant has also confirmed agreement to the installation of an information board on site, to reference the Astbury family’s historic role in the initial erection of Plas Ifan and the wider community.”