In April 2025, Fluent Architectural Design Services submitted plans to Sutton Council to transform Grantley Court Nursing Home at 22 York Road into a building containing eight self-contained flats.
Grantley Court Nursing Home closed in December 2014 after an inspection found “significant failings in safety and quality of care”.
If approved, the former care home would be converted into eight flats, with the outbuildings at the rear demolished to make way for a new single-storey house with loft rooms.
The plans also include moving one wall to allow side access, altering some windows, adding solar panels, removing the rear ramp, and installing bin stores at the front.
Part of the rear roof would be raised, and parking, landscaping, and a cycle store would be added.
The proposed development is designed to retain the existing two-storey building mostly as it is, with very limited changes to the exterior.
The new single-storey house would be located at the back of the garden and would not be visible from the street.
It would be smaller than the main building and designed to appear as a supporting structure.
However, not everybody is happy.
21 objections from residents of York Road have been submitted to Sutton Council, and nobody has come forward expressing their support.
Kathleen Wright said: “I object to this planning as I feel it is overdevelopment of the site.
“York Road, south of Grange Road, is outside the Council Planning Area of potential intensification and we do not want to create a precedent.
“More residential units will create more traffic entering the road on an already busy corner.
“This is dangerous.
“I also support the objections made by the immediate neighbours.”
Paul Lincoln argued the proposal is “outside of the Sutton local intensification area and would set a dangerous precedent for other developments in York Road and surrounding areas”.
He added that the project is “too big a development and not in keeping with the nature of the area,” with “significant and dense back garden development” that could harm neighbours’ amenity through noise, loss of privacy, and increased traffic from the nine new premises and 22 bedrooms.
Malcolm Gammie raised concerns about the character of the area, saying the plan “represents an undesirable change in the character of properties in York Road, Holland Avenue and other surrounding roads that lie outside the Council’s Planning Area of Potential Intensification”.
He acknowledged the property’s semi-derelict state but argued this does not justify a development out of keeping with the surrounding area.
Dr Emma Wood expressed worries about the long-term impact, noting: “Approving this application could open the floodgates for similar developments along our road, gradually eroding the neighbourhood character that makes this such a pleasant place to live.
“Once precedents are set, it becomes much harder to resist future applications of a similar nature.”
Tony Butler described the scheme as “back garden development, which is very unwelcome, against existing policies and would set an undesirable precedent”.
He also highlighted the closeness to neighbouring properties, which could reduce residents’ enjoyment of their homes, and warned that additional traffic would increase danger in the surrounding roads.
He added that “this new application has not addressed anything to overcome these objections”.
The developers said: “The proposed conversion of the existing building and the erection of a single detached dwelling to create 9 residential units is acceptable in terms of the land use and land use to create a better and more efficient use of the site.”
