A semi-detached home in a residential Suffolk street could become a children's home if new plans before a council are given the go-ahead. 

Calm365 Healthcare Ltd has requested permission from West Suffolk Council for a change of use at 70 Abbotsbury Road in Bury St Edmunds, to allow for the creation of a children's home for up to two children to stay in. 

The home, which has three bedrooms and a garage, as well as one off-street parking space, would see up to three carers, two of whom would sleep overnight, working on a rota basis.

This comes after Rachel Maclean, minister of state for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said in May this year: "The planning system should not be a barrier to providing homes for the most vulnerable children in society.

"When care is the best choice for a child, it is important that the care system provides stable, loving homes close to children’s communities." 

A statement to the council said the Abbotsbury Road home would be registered as an Emotional and Behavioural Home, and children would undergo impact risk assessments to ensure they can integrate with the community prior to their admission.

The children would live at the property for the long term, perhaps years, and it would not be a halfway house or emergency housing. 

There would be no external alterations to the building or its surroundings.

Six carers would operate on a shift pattern of 48 hours on, 60 hours off and, except during 10 minute changeovers, there would no more than three carers on the property at any one time. 

In October, plans for a children's home in the residential area of Tasman Road, Haverhill, were given the green light by West Suffolk Council. 

A current plan lodged with Babergh District Council would see a Great Cornard former chiropractic clinic transformed into a children's home.