Cllr John Lines, Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Peter Roach, Chief Executive of the Bournville Village Trust, and The ExtraCare Charitable Trust’s Development Director Mark Curran visit the site of the proposed Bournville retirement village on Bristol Road.
A £35m extra care retirement village offering over 200 homes for local older people, pioneering health and leisure facilities and award-winning care, has been proposed on the old Bournville College site on Bristol Road, Birmingham.
The announcement follows the relocation of Bournville College to its new Longbridge Campus earlier this year, and the recent acquisition of the disused site by Bournville Village Trust.
Subject to the successful outcome of a planning submission in early 2012, Bournville Village Trust, The ExtraCare Charitable Trust and Birmingham City Council are expecting to push ahead with the new development in 2013, providing over 200 jobs during construction. The Village could open by 2015 with 30 locally-recruited staff working within the new community.
Partners believe the proposed six-acre Village, which has been designed by Bournville Architects, represents an ideal regeneration opportunity for the Bristol Road site, following the demolition of the existing college buildings most of which have already gone. It would provide a state-of-the-art, sustainable community that could benefit over 300 older people, and would encourage social and active participation amongst all age groups within the local neighbourhood.
At its heart, a vibrant Village Centre would include a restaurant, gym, well-being centre, IT facilities, shop, café and landscaped gardens. Residents would have the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities including choir singing, Tai Chi, writing, drama, wheelchair aerobics and woodwork, all designed to support independence and improved social opportunities, especially for those at risk of isolation.
Qualified staff would provide care for up to a third of residents within their own home. This would include an award-winning well-being service, specialist nursing care and some early dementia support.
The proposals have been carefully considered to ensure that residency would be affordable for all. A wide choice of purchase, shared ownership and rental homes would be offered with an on-site benefits team providing specialist advice to ensure that all applicants, even those with an existing tenancy and minimum state pension, could be considered for a new home.
Through its in-house architectural design team – Bournville Architects, the Trust has recently completed an innovative extra care project at Lightmoor Village in Telford and believes the Bristol Road development offers another great opportunity to bring together leading edge design and contemporary living space to broaden its provision in this sector.
Peter Roach, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: “The site on Bristol Road lends itself ideally to meeting the needs of older people and we are excited by the opportunity to work with Extracare Charitable Trust and Birmingham City Council on a project which enables people to receive care and support in their own homes whilst enjoying a range of fantastic facilities which enhance their lifestyle and indeed their health”.
For Birmingham City Council and The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, the Bournville project represents one of five planned villages across the City as part of a £200m development programme which will provide over 1,000 affordable homes for local older people. The first Village, New Oscott (developed with Midland Heart), opened in 2010 and is already over-subscribed.
Cllr John Lines, Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, said:
“This is a very exciting project and I’m proud to work in partnership with The Extracare Charitable Trust and Bournville Village Trust in order to achieve this new retirement village in Birmingham.
“Five years ago there were no retirement villages in the City but now, five years on, we have a total of five which is remarkable. The fact that we’ve been able to progress with these villages so quickly is testament to the City Council’s successful working partnerships in the housing sector.”
The ExtraCare Charitable Trust currently operates 12 retirement villages across the Midlands and North. In September 2011, results from a year-long study undertaken by The International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK) showed that ExtraCare residents experience a 24% reduction in social care needs within five years and are 50% less likely to enter institutional accommodation when compared with older people living in the community who are in receipt of domiciliary care.[1]
Commenting on the Bournville proposals, ExtraCare Chief Executive Nick Abbey said: “Bournville Village Trust, ExtraCare and The City Council have a common ambition to provide good-quality homes within inspirational communities that are affordable especially for those in need. Together, we are in a strong position to regenerate this site, providing a Village that transforms older peoples’ lives and is actively involved with its surrounding community.”