A FORMER bed and breakfast near Llanbrynmair will become a children’s care home and will be able to look after three youngsters at a time.

At Powys County Council’s Planning committee on Thursday, December 2, councillors discussed a planning application by the authority’s children’s services department to change the use of Station House, Talerddig from a residential dwelling, into a registered children’s home.

They heard arguments from several residents who objected to the proposal on the grounds of child safety, with the building being close to a railway line, it’s remoteness and road safety issues.

Resident, Pennant Jones who objected to the plans, said: “We are disappointed that our request to meet face-to-face on site has been rejected, as I know you would immediately agree with our position if you saw for yourselves how unsuitable the house is in terms of location.

“Station House adjoins the railway line and the dangers to children with behaviour problems are obvious.”

Powys’ head of children’s social services Jan Coles, told councillors that children had lived safely in the house in the past, including foster children and that residential care homes are highly regulated.

Ms Coles said: “This development is a really important part of the strategy for ensuring a sufficient supply of placements for children in Powys.

“It’s really important that we remember that the children who will live there are Powys children, who have grown up in rural communities.”

As councillors discussed the proposal, the council’s planning professional lead officer, Peter Morris, explained that they needed to keep their thoughts on where changing the buildings class of use was acceptable.

Many of the risks highlighted by objectors, he said “are the responsibility” of children’s services to deal with at “an operational level.”

Former chairman of the health and care scrutiny committee Cllr Gwilym Williams said: “These facilities are desperately needed in Powys.

“Some children, that have special needs are taken out of Powys to be looked after, on occasion it can cost a huge amount of money.

“There’s one that costs £40,000-a-week, if that child could be brought back then it would save a huge amount of money.”

“I know there’s problems raised by neighbours, but we need to support these children.”

He pointed out that last month that a decision had been made last month by the cabinet to set aside over £1.8 million from reserved budgets to deal with an overspend in children’s services at the end of the financial year.

This is due to a lack of specialist placements and providers being able to charge high fees for them.

Cllr Williams added that Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) would oversee the care home.

Cllr Williams said: “I welcome this and I’m disappointed we don’t have more coming through.”

Eventually after further debate the committee held a vote and the application was approved with 16 votes for, none against and one abstention.