Green light for new care home and wellbeing centre to be built at Cedars Park, Stowmarket

Company news

Oct 11, 2013

A new care home and wellbeing centre for Stowmarket, which are part of Care UK’s £60 million Suffolk-wide investment plan, have been granted planning approval by Mid Suffolk District Council’s planning committee which met on 9^th October. The new development will be built in the centre of the Cedars Park housing village on Creeting Road East.

The design of the new care home is spacious, light and airy with many communal areas for residents to meet with family, friends and fellow residents. The 70 bedrooms on three floors are generously-sized with ensuite shower facilities and to give a homely feel, small groups of residents will share their own dining room and lounge. The new home also has a garden and sitting out areas and attractive facilities including a café, hairdressers and a small cinema. 

The wellbeing centre will offer a range of day clubs, activities and specialist care, including services for those with dementia and other progressive illnesses. It is hoped the new facilities will help older people to maintain their independence for longer in their own homes and give valuable respite services for family carers.

Planning approval includes permission for a shop which will be let to a local business.

Chris Hopkinson, Regional Operations Director at Care UK, said: “We are delighted to see planning approval has been granted for the new care home in Cedars Park, Stowmarket, which will provide much needed 24 hour nursing and specialist dementia care in wonderful new facilities as well as services for older people living locally to enjoy in the wellbeing centre, which we hope the community will help us shape to their needs.” 

Work on the new development by Care UK’s construction partner Castleoak will be scheduled to begin in early 2014, with the opening date scheduled for spring 2015. Following the opening the residents of Wade House on Violet Hill Road in Stowmarket will have the option to move into the new home, after which Wade House, which opened in 1959, will close.  Residents and their families are being closely consulted about the plans.

The planning approval for the new care home at Cedars Park in Ipswich is the eighth successful planning application in Care UK’s carefully coordinated and phased £60 million investment programme for ten new care homes and ten wellbeing centres across Suffolk between now and 2016.

On 1st December 2012 Care UK took over Suffolk County Council’s sixteen residential care homes and eight wellbeing centres, welcoming over 500 residents. At the same time over 900 former Suffolk County Council employees transferred to become part of the Care UK team.

By 2016 the new homes and wellbeing centres will have replaced all Suffolk County Council’s former homes and wellbeing centres which date mainly from the 1960s and 1970s. The sites which are no longer needed will be returned to the Council.

For further information visit www.careuk.com/suffolk-new-homes or call 0333 321 0956.