Defence Online

The way is now clear for a Peebles care home – ravaged by floods at the end of last year – to be brought back into service.On Monday (Nov. 7), Scottish Borders Council’s planning committee unanimously agreed to grant Mansfield Care Ltd, the owners of Peebles Nursing Home in Tweed Green, planning consent for a major programme of refurbishment.Included in the proposals are extensive flood defences to replace and improve on those which were so spectacularly breached when Storm Frank hit the town last December.The home was evacuated and its 26 residents have since been re-housed at care facilities in Galashiels and Tweedbank.The company intends to reinstate and increase the height of boundary walls surrounding the property, install new flood gates and demolish flood-damaged extensions on the ground floor, replacing them with a new day room, laundry room and additional bedrooms – increasing residential capacity from 28 to 32.As reported in these columns last week, the planning bid fell foul of local planning officer Craig Miller who recommended refusal, citing concerns that the proposed extensions onto a flood plain would increase the flood risk for the nursing home and for neighbouring properties.He also claimed that increasing ground floor accommodation would put more vulnerable people at risk and place a strain on emergency services during future flood events.But after considering submissions from the company and noting that two applications from the owners of neighbouring houses in Tweed Green to bolster their flood defences were recommended for approval, the committee gave Mansfield Care the green light.Meanwhile the aforementioned applications from the owners of neighbouring properties were duly approved on Monday.Mr and Mrs Fleming were given consent to increase the height of the boundary wall at Priorsford House and Alan Packer received permission to replace a hedgerow at Hawthorn Bower with a 1.8 metre-high stone wall and fence.