Proposals to build a new residential care home for adults with complex needs on a long disused former mill site in Blackburn have been turned down.

Exemplar Health Care Services Limited had identified the land west of Moorgate Street in Mill Hill for the development.

But it's application to Blackburn with Darwen Council for planning permission for the construction of a 33-bed specialist care home with landscaping and parking has been rejected.

The site overlooking the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is vacant following demolition of the former Millgate Mill in 2008.

It has been the subject of several previous planning applications for new homes and currently has an extant approval for 20 houses and flats

The council decision says: "The development, by virtue of its failure to demonstrate a need arising from the requirements of people with a defined association with Blackburn with Darwen; its nature and scale failing to align with the council’s commissioning strategies; and an unwarranted increase in the level of demand for public support services to the extent that those services would deteriorate for existing users, is contrary to the requirements of the Blackburn with Darwen Borough Local Plan."

Supporting documents with the application said: "Exemplar specialise in providing high-quality specialist nursing care for adults with complex needs.

"This application proposes the construction of a three-storey building with 11 rooms on each floor.

"The facility will provide 33 bedrooms for residents, including two hoist bedrooms located on the ground floor.

"The proposal would bring the site back into use and would generate new jobs."

A report recommending refusal by planning officer Nick Blackledge says: "The council’s adult service’s strategic commissioning consultee has offered an objection to the proposal, on the premise that the local authority area cannot support the likely impacts arising on public service provision.

"The council’s own evidence confirms that there is no current need the residential / nursing provision within Blackburn and Darwen.

"There are nine residential and nursing schemes in Blackburn with Darwen which accommodate younger people with specialist needs and two thirds of these have vacancies.

"The current vacancies within the residential and nursing provision is between eight and 11 per cent.

"A new 70 bed residential / nursing care home is coming on stream in January 2024 which will increase capacity further.

"Over-provision in an area has the following impact: pressure on existing public resources if people from outside the borough move in with high levels of health, care and support needs; destabilisation of current care and nursing provision; and additional pressure to the local workforce shortages of care staff and nurses."