Mill Rise Extra Care Village set to open

The UK’s latest ‘extra care’ village is set to open its doors later this month in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Located in a priority regeneration area on the site of a former factory site, the £15million Mill Rise Extra Care Village is one of the first schemes outside London to combine extra care housing for the over 55s with a state-of-the-art primary care centre, integrating previously disparate health services.

The three-storey steel-framed development provides 60 one- and two-bedroom extra care apartments for rent and shared ownership and incorporates three GP practices, a pharmacy, restaurant, café, bar, and hair salon.

The development has been funded by Aspire Housing (£6,900,000), Prima 200(the local LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) company (£5,487,790), the Homes and Communities Agency (£4,300,000), and RENEW (£500,000).

Other partners include Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council, and Staffordshire County Council.

Care staff will be available round the clock, enabling residents to live independently in their own homes (all with their own front door) with flexible care and support on hand if required, at a level to suit individual circumstances.

Residents’ facilities include a lounge area and conservatory, landscaped gardens (including seating, water features and a large outdoor chess board), raised plant beds and greenhouses, hobby room, wireless broadband connection, community alarm pull cords, CCTV door entry systems, laundry room and scooter storage, with charging points on all floors.

Each apartment has keyless door entry, and offers a walk-in shower, fully fitted kitchen, low surface temperature radiators, and anti-scald taps and showers. With lifts to all floors, Mill Rise is wheelchair-accessible throughout. Assisted bathing is available in an adapted bathroom on the ground floor. Every bedroom has fixing points enabling a hoist to be easily installed if necessary.

There is also a guest room allowing residents’ family members and friends to stay overnight when necessary.

The site is expected to be further developed to create a further 160 mixed tenure homes.

The lead contractor for the project is Mansells Construction.