Work to begin on £6.2 million extra-care facilities in Settle (From Craven Herald)

Work to begin on £6.2 million extra-care facilities in Settle

9:00am Sunday 9th September 2012 in News

Work will start tomorrow on the construction of new extra- care facilities in Settle .

The £6.2 million development at Lower Greenfoot is a partnership scheme between Housing 21, North Yorkshire County Council, Craven District Council and the contractors, Keepmoat.

It will provide 50 one and two-bedroom self-contained apartments for people aged 55 and over.

Communal facilities will include a restaurant, resource room, communal lounges, wellbeing suite, hairdressing salon and landscaped gardens. Settle Library will also be relocated to the new development.

The scheme has had a chequered history, with the original plans being rejected by Craven District Council amid concerns over the height and mass of the building.

Supporters say extra-care schemes represent the best in partnership working and enable couples to stay together and have their families to stay and for people to keep their pets. Care and support is delivered according to need and can include high levels of community nursing as well as end-of-life palliative care.

County Coun Clare Wood, executive member for adult social care, said: “This is a tremendous project, absolutely at the cutting edge of where social care should be going. What authorities like North Yorkshire County Council are doing is commissioning services tailor-made to the needs of local people in their own communities.”

Clare Hemming, development programme manager for Housing 21, said: “We’re delighted that construction work is about to start. The new scheme will provide much needed accommodation, together with care and support for the local older population. This exciting new scheme will offer facilities which will be accessible and of benefit to others in the wider community.”

Further information about the scheme is available online at northyorks.gov.uk/lowergreenfoot.