Extra care facility cued up in Crewe

Eric Wright Construction and Cassidy + Ashton are leading on a project to bring the former Beechmere care home site back into use, after it was ravaged by fire in 2019.

Retirement living specialist Avantage (Cheshire) Ltd is the client for the project, which proposes a 75-bed facility at the Rolls Avenue site. Plans have now been lodged with Cheshire East Council.

Professionals working on the scheme include landscape architect TEL, transport planner Mode, Red Acoustics, flood advisor Roscoe, E3P, Acerta, Futureserv, and Jensen Hughes. C+A is both architect and planner.

The proposal is for a 100% affordable extra care scheme over three storeys. As C+A sets out in its design & access statement, “the historic loss of the Extra Care Village on site emphasises the local need for extra care housing stock and facilities”.

Following the 2019 fire and subsequent demolition, Avantage took forward plans for a 132-apartment replacement facility, but although consent was secured in 2020 the scheme was never delivered.

The area is primarily residential, and is in the north-west of Crewe, close to both the soon to be redeveloped Leighton Hospital and Bentley Motors.

Avantage proposes 60 one-bedroom apartments, of which 18 would be wheelchair-adaptable, and 15 two-beds, two of them wheelchair-adaptable. The design is a U-shape, with hard and soft landscaping proposed for the communal courtyard area.

The proposals can be viewed in full via Cheshire East Council’s planning portal, reference 26/1772/FUL.