COUNCILLORS have approved plans for a children’s home in St Helens.

The application was passed by the planning committee at its meeting on Tuesday.

The application proposed the change of use of the property, on Windleshaw Road, Dentons Green from a dwelling to a residential children’s home for one child up to the age of 18.

The application site is currently occupied as a two-bedroom dwelling house.

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A report to the committee said this home will ‘run like a family home’, with the ‘only difference’ being that rather than the traditional parent and child structure, it will be care staff instead of parents.

The house will contain one young person full-time and will be staffed permanently by one member of staff, who will work on a 48-hour shift rota pattern.

Staff handovers will occur during off-peak times to ‘minimise any possible disruption’ to neighbours. Staff changeovers will be at 10am, every 48 hours.

The report added: “There will be a handover of one staff for a period of 15 minutes to ensure smooth transition of operational requirements.

“The house manager will also attend the home frequently, combining this home and another home as their management responsibility.

“As such there would be a maximum number of two members of staff on site at any one time. There is one allocated staff bedroom/office, and one member of staff would stay overnight.

“The amenity impact of the proposal is considered acceptable, and no serve impact is considered to be created to highway network from the proposed application. Therefore, a recommendation for approval has been put forward by officers.”