PLANS to replace a former pub in Bicester with a care home have been turned down on appeal by a planning inspector.

London-based Liborate Limited wanted to demolish the now-closed Centurion pub for a new 53-bed care home for dementia patients.

But Cherwell district councillors refused permission last December.

The developer has planning permission, granted in March, to build nine three-bedroom houses, with 20 parking spaces.

Residents in nearby Ashdene Road had opposed the care home plans over concerns about the lack of parking on the site. The pub had 50 parking spaces and the care home would have had 12 spaces, a disabled and ambulance bay and 12 cycle spaces.

Planning inspector Jane Miles rejected the appeal and said the care home “would cause significant harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area”.

She said: “Although designed to appear as two-storey, with a smaller third storey of accommodation in the roof space, at some 9.8m high it would be taller than other two-storey buildings in the area.

“The adverse effects of the building’s scale and bulk would be especially apparent in the long frontage onto Kingsclere Road.

“In particular, it would tower above the very modest bungalows immediately opposite, despite the intervening trees and some space for additional landscaping.”

The inspector also said in her report that the parking for the care home would be adequate.

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