A house believed to have been empty for several years could be transformed into a children’s care home. If approved the plan will see the house on Whalley Avenue, Johnson Fold turned into a children’s home with two bedrooms and three members of staff. But concerns have already been raised about the suitability of the area.
Cllr Roger Hayes, of Smithills, said: "It's a relatively small house and there's some nice countryside nearby but it still causes me grave concern. "We've been trying to get a lot more input into planning from both adults and children's services so we're hoping to have a Policy Development Group looking at how we can do that." The plans have been put before Bolton Council (Image: Eznat) According to the bid made by Master Quality Health Care Services Ltd to Bolton Council for the Whalley Avenue home, the house is currently vacant and has been so since 2019.
A statement from the company said: "Our organisation exists to help less fortunate children in our community and not all children are afforded the opportunity to become good adult citizen. "Some children are abandoned or orphaned at an early age and have no one to look after them and we are there to cover that gap. "Though we can’t completely take the parents’ role, we become the guardian to those children looking after children on 24/7 basis, we aim to minimise disruption in the children lives by providing well trained staff to look after them 24/7.
"Part of our duty of care is to our neighbours.