New plan for £6.5m care home to house 60 people

Planning details for a state-of-the art Barrow care home have been revealed. Cumbria County Council has applied for planning permission for a new £6.5m home which will be built on the site of the former George Basterfield House.

The 60-bed care home is based on giving residents improved care but allowing them to be independent.

The plans, which have been submitted to Barrow Borough Council for approval, reveal that residents will live in ‘houses ’ of 12 bedrooms.

A statement prepared for the application said this decision was taken to allow residents to have easy access to outdoor facilities.

It said: “The scheme is designed around the central idea of houses for 12 residents. Working within the constraints of the site, the design took a route of having three houses on two storeys.

“An early decision made by the design team and Cumbria County Council was the important requirement for as many bedrooms as possible to be located at ground floor level, allowing as many residents as possible to have direct access to the outdoors.”

Each house will have a dining room, lounge space and doors out to the communal areas.

Other facilities within the home include a hair salon, treatment rooms, a laundrette and a large café.

The work is being carried out by GB Building Solutions, and over 30 Cumbrian suppliers are set to be involved in the project, which could be completed by next summer.

The statement also reveals plans to change the to change access at the site in Greengate Street. It said: “The existing access to the site is in the centre of the site off Risedale Road.

“In the early design development stage a decision was made that the site entrance should be relocated further to the south away from the junction of Risedale Road and Greengate Street.

“The car park is marked out for 18 spaces, with two designated disabled spaces near to the main entrance of the building.

“The car park has a service access layby allowing delivery vehicles to reverse into this space to off load deliveries directly into the service access entrance of the building; this space can also be used by emergency vehicles if required.”

The new unit, which will specialise in dementia care, replaces four existing homes in Barrow, cutting the number of beds from 172 to 100.