PROPOSALS to create a residential community training centre in a former care home have been submitted to planning chiefs.

Durham County Council has received an application to develop Stanfield House, in Stanley.

The scheme is for 18 flats, as well as training and communal rooms along with 29 car parking spaces.

The Durham company behind the plans, First Point Training, is basing its charity, Positive Directions, at Stanfield House.

Building Surveyors, a Newcastle-based planning agent acting on behalf of the organisation, has submitted a statement to the authority as part of the application.

It said the accommodation will be ‘attractive’ and aimed at working people, older people who are divorced or bereaved, the elderly, those with low health or with mental health issues, people in recovery and those who need community support to alleviate loneliness and isolation.

The statement said: “This ‘village’ model will provide accommodation and training facilities to these individuals alongside offering a place to live where they can learn and interact with others who have previously struggled to engage socially for the reasons listed above.

“It is therefore considered that this unique accommodation and training facility will provide vital accommodation for Stanley, satisfying the demographic demands of the town.”

The former Durham County Council care home was closed by the authority in 2011 and sold two years later.

In December 2013, the council granted planning permission for it to be converted into 14 residential apartments.

Work started on the site as part of ‘permitted development’ recently, but was stopped earlier this after a visit by council enforcement officers.

Stanley Town Council is holding a planning meeting to discuss the development at the Civic Hall, at the top of Front Street, on September 29.

Council chairman Joan Nicholson said: “I have had conversations with the residents’ association and they obviously have concerns.

"I think the concerns are about who will be living in the flats because there are elderly bungalows near the building.

"I think 29 car parking spaces worry a lot of them because 29 cars coming in and out is a lot. It is a lot more traffic for the road. They are not the biggest roads. It will be discussed at the meeting. We will look at it.”

The decision will be made by the planning committee of the county council at a date yet to be announced.