TWO sheltered care homes for disabled people have been planned in Bournemouth. 

The properties, which could be built in Autumn Road, West Howe, will be used to house those with learning difficulties or acquired brain injuries (ABI). 

KLKR Properties said there is a “significant and desperate need” for such accommodation, warning it is “projected to increase over the coming decade until 2038”. 

Figures from BCP Council show in 2021, there were 6,064 15- to 64-year-olds with learning difficulties. The authority predicts this will rise by 18 per cent in 2038 to 7,155. 

In a design and access statement, planning consultants Planning Base said no animals will be allowed to live there – not even guide dogs – and only BCP Council will decide who can move in. 

Two full time people will be employed, should the project receive planning permission and be built. 

Both buildings would come with one disabled car parking each and both supplied with electric charging points. On the environment, the building would come with solar panels and the “latest technology in energy saving”. 

The statement added: “The appeal site is not large enough for recreation or sport opportunities and doesn’t perform any kind of role in allowing formal or informal recreation either historically or now that it is in a different ownership.” 

A previous application on the land to build a 2/3 storey office block was rejected in 2021 because the council didn’t like the “poor design and dominant size”. 

But KLKP believe this isn’t the case anymore: the planning statement said the new design is a “subservient addition to the street scene” that will “assimilate well within the expanse of the plot”. 

The application will be decided by BCP Council in due course.