PLANS to redevelop Wilshire Council’s former depot site in Marlborough into a 64-bed care home, with a further 28 assisted living units, have raised concerns over congestion in Salisbury Road.

The plans, which could create up to 70 jobs, have been put forward by Beechcroft and Porthaven Care Homes, which presented their plans to the town council prior to the planning meeting on Monday night.

Giles Brockbank, of planning consultant Hunter Page, said: “We’re looking to retain the existing access as is and we’ve had some initial discussions with Wiltshire Council over that.

“We’re looking to make the best reuse of this site as we possibly can, to clean it up and get rid of the contamination that is on site, and also to provide a development which we feel will enhance this approach into Marlbor-ough and provide a high quality scheme for the town.”

Mr Brockbank said the application would not be ready to submit to Wiltshire Council for at least a couple of weeks.

There is parking near the care home for visitors and staff and parking for each assisted living unit plus seven visitors’ spaces on the other side of the site.

The plans involve bringing the kerb near the entrance of the site further forward and councillors voiced concern that, with cars parking on the other side, this would effectively make Salisbury Road a one-way system.

Coun Justin Cook, who owns a private hire company in the town, said: “It’s already so constricted in this area and the fact that more of the verge will be taken means that there will be very little island space to pull over to let people past and I’m just envisaging this being a nightmare.”

The developers said they will consult with Wiltshire Council’s Highways department over the concerns.

Beechcroft managing director Chris Thompson said: “What we need to do is two things; one is that we need to submit with our application an impact study to determine what the peak hour movements are in the morning and evening and, secondly, it seems we need to do a traffic count around the 2pm shift handover.

“We perhaps need to go back to Highways and explain that there is a concern and we’ll put it to them and see what they say.

“The reason we’re building out is to bring cars further out into the road to improve visibility, so this is maybe something we need to go back to Highways and talk about.”