NEIGHBOURS of a care home have objected to proposals to build an extension so it can provide care for mentally ill residents.

Planning officers have recommended that the plans for the 12-bed elderly mentally ill (EMI) unit at The Gardens Care Home, in Pondfield Close, Darlington, are given approval.

However, six residents living near the care home, in the Hummersknott area of Darlington, have objected to the application because of flooding and parking problems and claims it would be inappropriate in a residential area.

The Gardens Care Home is a 46-bed elderly persons' care home in a cul-de-sac off Salutation Road, run by Ascot Care. The firm's application is to build a single-storey extension to the south of the current buildings for the EMI unit. There is a second planned extension for another two bedrooms.

Three additional parking spaces will be provided and a number of trees in the grounds chopped down.

The company's initial application said: "The need for specialist care facilities for the elderly mentally ill has been identified by the local health authorities with The Gardens identified as an ideal location for such facilities, as a natural extension of the existing care provision." Neighbours feared the removal of trees would worsen flooding problems in the area - particularly during winter months - and parking and traffic problems in the small cul-de-sac would worsen.

One said: "This is a quiet, residential area. While smallscale care facilities can fit into this quite comfortably, this application will create a commercial establishment of a size that would have a significant adverse impact on the character of the area."

Darlington Borough Council's planning committee will decide the outcome of the application when it meets on Wednesday.

The planning officer's report - to be tabled to the committee - said the extension would not have an impact upon neighbouring properties or cause any road problems.

It said: "The proposed extensions to the existing care home are considered to be acceptable in terms of their scale, design and use of matching materials in the context of both the application property itself and the wider streetscene.

"Although concerns have been raised regarding the loss of trees and flooding arising from the proposed development, it is not considered that these concerns are sufficient to warrant refusal of the application on these grounds."

Wednesday's meeting starts at 1.30pm in the town hall. It is open to the public.