Ceremony marks start of work on supported housing development at Bath Place in Leamington

The ground breaking ceremony for the new Bath Place supported accomodation project took place on Friday. Cllr Jose Compton (centre) officially opened the building site.

Commissioned for adults with learning and physical disabilities to provide a safe home environment, Bath Place is a £2 million development of 16 apartments which are the result of a partnership between Inclusion Housing CIC and Lifeways Community Care.

HB Villages is responsible for the build and delivery of the property, in partnership with contractor McGoff and Byrne.

Cllr Jose Compton, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care for the county council, officially opened the ceremony on Friday with a passionate speech about what the development will mean for the local population.

She said: “This is a wonderful opportunity to provide this accommodation for people with learning and physical disabilities to have a home of their own with their own front door.

“This just proves when we get all the councils working together that we can achieve this and it has been a long time coming.

“I really look forward to the opening ceremony in about nine months time when we welcome the first residents.”

The launch of the project did not come without some controversy before.

In 2014 the county council decided to sell the former All Saints Primary School site to the private developers dashing the hopes of Bath Place Community Venture, which had wanted to build a new community centre there.

Alastair Sheehan, development director of HB Villages, said: “Both Warwickshire County Council and Warwick District Council have been fully supportive of the development, having understood from the start what it will mean to local individuals with learning and physical disabilities.

“We are extremely grateful for their collaborative support and approach to the delivery of a complicated site, not without its political challenges.

“Bath Place will be one of the first developments in the county to provide homes which will allow vulnerable individuals the ability to live as independently as possible, not only in terms of the 24-hour support on a site located in a highly sustainable location, but one that will also have a comprehensive and bespoke assistive technology offering.”