Mayor plants tree to launch building work on Hartlepool’s new retirement community
The Mayor of Hartlepool, Stuart Drummond, will mark the start of building work on a new retirement community in the town when he plants a tree at the site of the development, on Friday 12 May. Hartfields Extra Care Retirement Community will be one of the UK’s largest and most adventurous developments for older people.
Hartfields will be developed by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) in partnership with Hartlepool Borough Council, Hartlepool Primary Care Trust, and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust. The scheme has received backing worth £9.8m from the Government’s Extra Care Housing Fund and £0.7m from the Housing Corporation.
Extra Care housing enables older people to live independently in their own, self-contained home with reassurance that high-quality care and support services will be available when needed. At Hartfields the 214 apartments and 28 bungalows, all especially designed for later life, can be rented, part-owned or bought outright.
Central to the scheme will be a ‘village street’, covered by an atrium, and complete with healthy living centre, restaurant and coffee bar, shop, hairdressers, lounge, IT facilities and craft room. Hartfields will be set in attractive, landscaped grounds featuring a village square and village green.
The local community stands to gain too, as both the Council’s Adult and Community Services Department and Hartlepool Primary Care Trust plan to base Community Outreach Teams in the day centre to be built in the village.
Hartfields Extra Care Retirement Community will build on the experience of Hartrigg Oaks, JRHT’s highly acclaimed retirement community in York. The JRHT will manage the scheme on its completion.
Castleoak Care Partnerships, a design and construction company specialising in care accommodation for older people, is the contractor for the scheme which has been masterplanned by PRP Architects. The first residents are expected to move in during spring 2008 and the scheme will be finally completed 12 months later.
The JRHT has already had a large number of enquiries from local people who are interested in Hartfields and will be writing to them in due course with an update of the timetable for development. Anyone else wanting to register interest in the scheme should ring 01904 752227.
John Kennedy, the JRHT’s Director of Care Services, said: “Hartfields is an exciting opportunity to create a supportive community in Hartlepool. Building on the lessons learnt from Hartrigg Oaks, our retirement village in York, and from other developments around the country, we are aiming to provide an exemplary scheme of which the people of Hartlepool can be extremely proud.”
For further information, please contact:
John Kennedy, JRHT Director of Care Services 01904 752201
