A 66 bed care home and 320 apartments are to be built at the top of Aurs Road in Newton Mearns This “retirement village” will be completely self contained with shops, a gym, tennis courts, bowling green, restaurant and bar in the first development of its kind in Scotland.

Councillors voted to approve the plans at a Thursday meeting of the full East Renfrewshire Council in Eastwood.

To live in this exclusive village, residents must be at least 55 years-old and purchase their own apartment.

The development would be built across the road from Whitecraigs Rugby Club and immediately adjacent to the M77 motorway.

However, the proposals were approved with significant opposition from a number of sources, including East Renfrewshire Community Health and Care Partnership, Glasgow Airport and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

The Community Health and Care Partnership (CHCP) has said that there is no case for a care home in Newton Mearns, and that the developer has made assumptions about the area’s demographic.

It said: “The case for another care facility within the community of Newton Mearns is not made.

The developers have made assumptions based upon local demographics that take no real cognisance of current Government policy around care of older people and the need for alternative and sustainable models of care.

“This development is unlikely to add value to the choices already available within the local care home market and will lead to a consequential and ultimately unsustainable pressure on both council and NHS services locally.” The applications’s report of handling says that there were just 12 public responses to the proposal, with 11 objecting and one in support.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport said: “The site is remote from the existing public transport network and existing communities,” and goes on to suggest that: “A planning condition requiring details of the introduction and operation of the regular mini bus service referred to in the Design and Access Statement and the submission of a Travel Plan for all users of the site be created.” As highlighted by public objections and councillors at the meeting itself, the development is not in line with the council’s own local development plan (LDP).

The LDP is supposed to act as a guideline for building and development in East Renfrewshire.

However the council acknowledged that the development was not in keeping with the LDP, saying: “The proposed development is a departure from the development plan as it is not to be retained as business/industrial purposes and it is not one of the types of development specified in policy of the adopted Local Plan.” The news comes just weeks after ERC decided to delay a vote on the future of its own carehome Bonnyton House for two years.

This will allow alternatives to selling the carehome to a private firm to be investigated.