Former care home to be demolished for new houses

A nursing home which closed just over a year ago, leaving around 40 elderly residents to find new accommodation, is set to be turned into a new housing development.

A planning application has been submitted to knock down Northfield Manor and build nine new family homes on the site off Long Lane.

Hessle-based Essential Estates Ltd is looking for permission to build four three-bedroom and five four-bedroom properties. There will also be parking for 23 cars as part of the development.

A report which supports the planning application says: “A new residential development is proposed at the site of the residential care home Northfield Manor, situated on Long Lane, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

“The care home has recently become disused and it is anticipated that the building will be demolished in order to make way for a new residential development.”

The home closed in January 2022, with families claiming they were told by email and were only given a few weeks notice to find somewhere to move their elderly relatives to.

Northfield Manor had been classed as ‘good’ at its most recent inspection, but its owners said it had made the decision to close with ‘great sadness and reluctance’.

“Due to the ongoing inability to recruit staff and the financial crisis currently faced in the social care sector, I have been left with no other option but to make this difficult decision.

“I have explored all avenues before deciding on the closure of Northfield Manor,” Tracy McNelis told the Wolds Weekly at the end of 2021.