Care Home To Rise From Ashes Of School Destroyed By Blaze

A new community centre and care home for the elderly is set to be built on the site of a former Edinburgh primary school which was demolished following a devastating fire. Health and council bosses hope to build the new 60-bed care home in the grounds of the former North Merchiston Primary School.

Edinburgh City Council had been building a £1.9 million special school on the site when it was destroyed by fire four years ago.

The new plans for the site will also see a new community centre which would be used as a meeting place for the elderly and disabled and open to local community groups in the evenings.

The scheme is part of a £20m plan to provide four new care homes across the city to cope with a shortage of places. A design team has been appointed for the four-storey Merchiston home and it is hoped that construction will be completed by the end of 2008.

Edinburgh City Council’s health and social care chief, Kingsley Thomas, said: “This is part of our long-term strategy to increase the number of publicly-run care home places in the city.

“The new homes will also set a benchmark for quality for older people’s homes and we have consulted older people’s groups when drawing up the designs.

“We believe the Tay Street development is going to be of real benefit to the local community, not just for the older people who live at the home but as a badly needed facility for older people in the day and in the evenings when we hope it can be used by the wider community.”

A planning application is likely to be submitted after a public meeting which is being scheduled for the next few weeks.

Local councillor Lorna Shiels said: “A care home for the elderly is desperately needed in the city centre and this site is an ideal location.”

All four 60-bed homes were originally expected to be completed by the end of next year but bosses were forced to find a new city centre site after officials ruled out using health board land at Chalmers Street.

NHS Lothian has since put the site up for sale and is considering the bids from a number of private developers. Situated next to the Quartermile Development, property experts believe the site could fetch around £4 million and is likely to be turned into flats.

Edinburgh City Council and NHS Lothian decided to build the care homes in response to a shortage of places which has led to some elderly patients being kept in hospital because there was nowhere else for them to go.

The lack of places was caused by care home owners selling buildings to take advantage of a booming Capital property market.

The first home, at Lochend, is expected to welcome residents by May. A second home in Craigmillar is expected to be completed by October.

A third residential home is likely to open on the site of the former Eastern General Hospital by the end of next year.

NHS Lothian’s director of finance, John Matheson, said: “The development of new care homes is a very important project and will greatly assist in providing additional, new, fit for purpose care home facilities, thereby helping to minimise the number of delayed discharges.

“This will be particularly beneficial to patients allowing them to be transferred more quickly into appropriate care in a community setting.”