New £10m care facility will be Jubilee crowning glory for South Ribble

Plans for the 72 apartment Jubilee Gardens complex, with its own cafe/bistro, balcony garden and amphitheatre, have now been submitted by the council to its own planning committee.

The development which will also boast sunken gardens, a hair and beauty salon, a pamper suite and four residents' lounges, is to be built on open space next to the authority's Civic Centre in West Paddock, Leyland.

All 72 flats - 64 of them one-bedroom - will be offered at affordable rent of at least 20 per cent below local market level.

According to the detailed plans put forward the scheme is to provide assisted living accommodation which "offers more support than sheltered housing, but still allows you to live independently."

The name has been chosen both the honour Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and to tie in with a housing development across the road called Jubilee Court.

Jubilee Gardens will give residents their own private accommodation, but with round the clock support if needed. It will have communal areas to encourage social interaction and reduce isolation.

The facility will be an electricity-only building. It will have solar panels and air-sourced heat pumps to provide some of its power needs.

Two sessions of public consultation were carried out by the council in October 2021 and April this year.

The authority says the public showed a good response to the scheme, although there were some concerns, mainly over traffic and parking.

The site is currently an amenity greenspace which used for dog walking and the base for an annual fairground.

A separate unit to the accommodation building will be called The Pavilion and will house the cafe/bistro, a residents' lounge and offices.

There will be wildflower planting and open space for residents, including seating areas and raised planters.

When ground preparation work began recently, Coun Mick Titherington, cabinet member for health, said: "For a long time an extra-care facility has been vitally needed in the borough.

"We have an aging population and as a council we want to do all we can to make sure that those people who need additional care can continue to live in the borough independently."