TWO Council-run care homes are set to close as part of plans to build a new short-stay facility in the district.

Bradford Council's executive is being asked to agree to redevelop the site which once housed Neville Grange Resource Centre in Saltaire, at a cost of £9.3 million.

The proposals include building a a new care home facility on the land at Queens Road, to provide 50 short-stay beds for older people in need of respite or leaving hospital.

The scheme will be specifically designed to support people who are living with dementia and their families providing short-term care in partnership with health services to rehabilitate and support people back in to the community.

It would allow the Council to close two small older short-stay homes that it considers no longer fit for purpose. These homes are Beckfield Resource Centre near Peel Park and Woodward Court Resource Centre in Allerton.

The proposal is that the two older council care homes will be closed upon the opening of the new 50-bed home at Saltaire.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, the Council’s executive member for healthy people and places, said: “This new facility will provide modern accommodation in a purpose built facility.

"In Bradford we want people to live healthy, happy lives, where they are in control and able to make the best lifestyle choices for themselves and their families.

"These new facilities will provide person centred care and support and promote choices and independence.”

An initial plan to build 45 extra care apartments for the elderly alongside a unit with 20 intermediate care beds on the Neville Grange site was first approved by Bradford Council in 2014.

At the time it was hoped that the scheme would be up and running 2015. But work never started on site.

In 2018 the Council confirmed that there were still plans to develop care services on the site and a revised scheme was expected to come forward.

The two older care homes provide 62 beds in total, so there would be a drop of 12. But this is believed to be acceptable as "more people will be seeking services in their own home in future".

Once closed, Beckfield and Woodward Court would be transferred to the Council's asset management team, and sold off.

While the new 50-bed facility would cost £9.3m to build on land the Council already owns, repairs and maintenance costs at the two older care homes is currently estimated to be around £977,000 in total.

A sum to keep the two homes and refurbish them is difficult to estimate, a report to the executive states, but it is believed to be very expensive.

Furthermore reconfiguring the layout to create the larger rooms more suited to residents going forward would result in a loss of 25 of the 62 beds.

On top of this residents would need to move out and into the independent sector while the refurbishment was going on at an estimated cost of £3m.

The report will be discussed at a meeting of the executive on Tuesday, October 5, from 10.30am.

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