Council Builds £1m Centre For People Wih Learning Disabilities

Croydon Council is presently constructing a £1million centre on the site of a disused car park and will provide a base for people with learning disabilities from Monday to Friday from 9am until 6pm each week.  The building will then be available for community use in the evenings and weekends. The Whitehorse Road Resource Base, due to open in late spring 2007, forms an integral part of the modernization of the learning disability day services in the borough, as well as offering new facilities to the local community for the development of group activities.

The contemporary single storey building will include meeting rooms, an administration office, an IT room, a café area plus kitchen and store, all wrapped around a multi-use activity hall. The building itself has been designed to minimize energy consumption and incorporates sun pipes and “windcatcher” roof ventilation to dissipate heat and provide fresh air ventilation in a controlled manner. 

Heating is provided by high efficiency condensing boilers with weather compensating and optimized controls. Highly efficient lighting is provided with a time clock and dimming control. All external materials have been selected to give a low or maintenance free building. Wherever possible materials are to be from renewable sources or recycled (i.e. aggregates for concrete).

According to Councillor Margaret Mead, the new centre “will provide more flexible services to better meet the individual needs of people with learning disabilities.  “Individualised programmes and tailored support will help those in particular who have suffered from exclusion from many opportunities within the local community because of restricted access to employment, housing, education and leisure” she said.