Foundation Stone Laid For New Care Centre In Thornbury
One of the UK’s largest not-for-profit care home providers – The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT) – has placed the foundation stone for its newest state-of-the-art care centre in Gloucestershire following an official ceremony on 8th September.
As part of the day, Cllr Erica Williams, Chair of South Gloucestershire Council, laid the foundation stone of the Thornbury development in front of an audience that included representatives from several local community organisations, OSJCT Trustees and Directors and several of those involved in the design and construction of the project.
Named Grace Care Centre, after the famous English cricketer W G Grace whose family lived in the area, several of his descendants also attended the ceremony and part of the finished home will be cricket-themed to reflect its name inspiration.
Set for completion during late 2017, the new 70-bed facility will include three floors dedicated to providing a combination of residential and specialist dementia care via multiple individual households, each one complete with its own kitchen and communal living space.
The home will also include a central destination area that will feature a cafe, hair & beauty salon, craft room and cinema, as well as landscaped gardens accessible from each of the ground floor households and a communal garden that will be accessible from the cafe area and living / dining rooms.
Chris Poole, OSJCT Assistant Operations Director for Gloucestershire, said: “We’re very excited about bringing another care centre to Gloucestershire. As the number of older people living longer and with dementia grows, there is even more of a need for facilities like this one and the other 18 we already operate throughout the county.
“Meeting the needs of and providing the highest quality of compassionate care to this vulnerable group is our number one priority, which is why this is the second foundation stone we’ve laid in the county this year – the other one in South Cerney.
“As construction progresses, we look forward to inviting the local community to come and see the excellent facilities we’ll have to offer.”
Cllr Erica Williams said: “It was a pleasure to attend The Orders of St John Care Trust’s official ceremony and see the foundation stone laid for this state-of-the-art care centre. It’s fantastic to see progress made on this development that will offer excellent facilities for vulnerable people in South Gloucestershire.”
The home is being built by Castleoak in partnership with The Orders of St John Care Trust, which will provide the care in the new home.
Castleoak Development Director, Doug Jones, said: “Having delivered design and build solutions with The Orders of St John Care Trust over the past 13 years, we’re delighted to have this opportunity to consolidate our partnership with this project, our first development deal. We’re looking forward to providing a first class new facility for the local community.”
