Trafford Council and partners welcome £3m extra care funding

TRAFFORD Council, Trafford Housing Trust and other partners have welcomed £3m funding towards a proposed extra care facility, aimed at improving services for more vulnerable residents in Trafford.
The funding, from the Home and Communities Agency (HCA), has been awarded to support the development of up to 80 new apartments of extra care housing.

The proposed scheme is part of a wider Masterplan for Old Trafford which aims to “create a vibrant, sustainable community, with quality housing, excellent environment, and good connections to employment opportunities together with improved retail and community facilities.”

A potential site on Shrewsbury Street has been identified and current proposals are to include the extra care as part of a wider development that would deliver a vibrant intergenerational community hub with state of the art health facilities.

In a joint statement Cllr Michael Young, executive member for adult social services, and Cllr Michael Hyman, executive member for economic growth and prosperity, said: “We warmly welcome the announcement of this funding to support this exciting and innovative project in Old Trafford. We strive to promote independence, choice and control for our vulnerable population. This new extra care development will be the fourth for the council over the past six years and will provide an excellent coverage across the borough, including Partington, Timperley, Sale and Old Trafford.

“The focus of this new scheme will be preventative care and support aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of citizens, and addressing inequalities in life expectancy. The scheme, in the heart of Old Trafford, will not only provide housing, health and community facilities but will also give an economic boost to the area through new jobs”.

Matthew Gardiner, chief executive of Trafford Housing Trust, said: “We are delighted by this funding award to support extra care provision in Trafford. This grant will help to support our ambition of creating an integrated community hub, which will deliver extra care facilities and much more besides. We are optimistic that, together with our partners, we can achieve the full scope of this ambition, delivering a fantastic new community resource, and contributing to the wider regeneration of Old Trafford.”

Extra care housing is already in place in other areas of Trafford including Partington and Timperley, where the schemes provide self-contained housing with access to care and support for residents 24 hours a day, either on site or on-call.

Trafford Housing Trust is currently building a third scheme in Sale.

Planning for the development is in the very early stages but initial plans are to incorporate a GP facility, clinical services such as x-ray and a library facility alongside the extra care.

Partners are working closely together to agree further funding and contractual arrangements of the various elements in order to ensure that the scheme as a whole is deliverable.

Now that the funding has been announced the council, trust and other partners intend to start an intensive engagement process to understand more about what the community would like to see delivered within any future scheme.