Care complex taking shape

Progress is being made on an £8m complex that will provide assisted living for 60 people.

Gladstone House, on Bowbridge Road, Newark, is an extra care facility that allows people over 60 to live independently but with 24-hour access to support.

The Newark and Sherwood District Council facility will include 60 flats made up of 48 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom homes.

Construction work started in August last year and is due to be completed by the beginning of December.

It will be fitted out and be ready for residents in March.

Forty of the 60 units will be occupied by residents identified by Nottinghamshire County Council as suitable for the accommodation.

The rest will be open to applications from Newark and Sherwood Homes, but are suitable only for people over 60.

Each flat comes with a bedroom, kitchen, living area and a wet room with wash and dry toilet, which give residents with reduced mobility the ability to wash and dry themselves without the help of a carer.

The house will have a 16-space carpark, including four disabled bays and a drop-off/pick-up zone near the front entrance.

There will be two sensory gardens, which will include raised beds, sunken beds, planters and seating areas.

Most of the flats will have a Juliet balcony and ground floor units will have a patio area.

Some of the flats will look out over nearby allotments and some will look out or open out on to the sensory gardens.

Part of the building will have a living roof, which means it will be completely covered by vegetation, to help absorb rainwater and provide insulation.

Inside, there will be a communal area for residents that will include a beauty room with hairdressers, coffee room, cinema room, lounge and dining area.

There will also be a hobby room with activities and crafts for residents.

As well as traditional activities, such as knitting, there will also be more practical DIY and woodwork activities like those popularised by the Men In Sheds movement.

Gladstone House has a dementia-friendly layout, which means no two corridors are the same.

This will help residents and visitors find their way around the development.

Some corridors have coloured feature walls and each one has a theme, for example, Southwell or the River Trent, featuring historical pictures and images of each.

Mr Peter Harley, business development manager at Newark and Sherwood Homes, said the building was designed to last at least 60 years.

“We are putting quite a bit into future-proofing it and there will be broadband fitted throughout,” he said.

Mr Adam Houlston, project manager for Henry Boot Construction, the company building the complex, said 60 to 70 people a day had been working on the development.

They included apprentices, a trainee planner and a trainee quantity surveyor.