A CARE home owner who plans to build a state-of-the-art elderly complex in Sutton came under fire from residents on Monday.

Around 40 villagers, mostly from the Crofters Mill development, challenged Philip Burgan, chairman of Maria Mallaband Nursing Homes and designer Lawrence Tomlinson about their proposal to build a 60-bed care home.

The development will include an elderly and mentally infirm (EMI) unit, and 55 residential flats on land adjacent to the cricket ground.

Plans for the development have been submitted to Craven District Council.

Mr Burgan told Sutton Parish Council this week that he owned a small group of care homes in Yorkshire and was looking to buy another in the area.

He said he had bought Royd Hill Nursing Home in October and intended to replace it with the new complex, transferring all the staff and residents.

"The home doesn't meet future regulations that will be imposed on care homes and it is not economical to convert it," he said.

"By doing this we will not only save the jobs of the people working in Royd Hill but create 10 to 15 new jobs immediately, and that will go up as the people in the retirement apartments will grow older."

He added he intended to sell Royd Hill to a developer who would probably convert it into housing.

The new complex, comprising a block of flats for the over 55s and a care home, will be constructed in stone and give the appearance of a mill and mill cottages.

But residents of adjoining Crofters Mill were concerned about the impact of having a four-storey block of flats on their doorstep.

One woman said: "Can you imagine the effect a four-storey mill building is going to have at least on the first dozen houses of the Croft estate?"

Other residents said that the building would overlook their homes and give the appearance of Halifax Building Society, or Hanover Hotel, rather than something in keeping with the area.

Mr Burgan said his plan was a response to a need for nursing care in the area, especially EMI care, identified by North Yorkshire County Council's social services department.

He said that he had consulted planning officer Richard Preston over the location of the site.

"This land had been ear-marked for employment use. The owners were having difficulty in selling it and they didn't think anyone would buy it because the local residents would not be particularly keen on having a factory there or something of that nature," he said.

Mr Burgan denied rumours that he had been in discussions with Silentnight over the lease of the adjacent cricket field and said that it would be "sacrilege" to spoil that area.

"I don't want to do anything with that land," he said. "There is nothing in those rumours at all."

Mr Tomlinson also dismissed a rumour that the home would be floodlit 24 hours a day saying that the complex would only need security lighting.

Mr Burgan added that he knew the complex would be built on a flood plain, but said he did not know at this stage whether the level of the land would need to be raised before the development could take place.

There was also a disagreement as to how close the complex would be to the Crofters Mill houses - Mr Burgan said they would be at least 100 feet away from the nearest home but one lady argued it would be as close as 26 feet from her home.

After the public discussion, the councillors said they were concerned that the land had been earmarked for light industry with one-storey units and this development did not fall into this category.

Chairman Steve Morrell said: "We have to consider what people thought when they bought their property (on Crofter's Mill). There is a lot of difference between a four-storey mill and a one-storey unit.

"Something in keeping with the existing development in terms of height would be satisfactory."

But Coun Roy Wilkinson said: "At the end of the day you either have a building like that one with up to 100 employees or do you want corrugated iron units which perhaps only employ a total of 20 people?"

After the meeting Mr Burgan told the Herald that he would remove the fourth storey from the block of flats, taking into account the residents' views.

"We now intend to resubmit an amended planning application, which we anticipate will address all issues discussed and give Sutton residents a care development in which they can take great pride," he said.