Work is complete at an innovative £2.3m ‘age-friendly’ development for the over 55s in Bolton that consists of 18 cottage-style apartments that have been designed to be easily adaptable as residents age.
The development, which occupies the site of the former St Joseph’s parish centre, school and presbytery on Horace Street in Halliwell, has been developed by Great Places Housing Group and designed by Leeds based architects, Brewster Bye.
All the one-bedroom homes are available for affordable rent and include a range of amenities including wet rooms and innovative adaptations from Invisible Creations, which specialises in products that make life easier as people get older, as well as being attractive, dual-purpose and discreet. The development also benefits from a large shared garden, separate herb garden and pocket library.
The project was the first to be delivered by Great Places Housing Group’s new in-house construction company, Terra Nova Developments Limited. It was built using modern methods of construction (MMC), with a panelised system from Scotframe, which produced all the external and internal structural panels, ready to be assembled on-site. As a result, most of the homes were complete in just six months.
Councillor Martyn Cox, leader of Bolton Council, was the guest of honour and cut the ribbon at an event to mark the scheme’s official completion.
Helen Spencer, Great Places’ executive director of growth, said: “We’re delighted to have been able to show Cllr. Cox and his team around this age-friendly scheme, that addresses the specific need for this type of accommodation in the local area.
“The apartments have been carefully designed to enable our future customers to live independently for as long as possible. The project is a great example of partners working together to develop much needed affordable homes for the area.”
Nathan Wilkinson, from Brewster Bye Architects, said: “This is a project that the whole development team can be proud of. It now offers 18 exceptional homes in a popular location that were built using MMC, which was fast and efficient.
“There’s also a host of innovative adaptions that will help to accommodate the future needs of elderly residents and enable them to remain in their homes as they age with minimal adaptations required, which will ultimately delay, or even prevent, the need for formal care.”
