Residential homes to close after declared not fit for purpose

A total of 38 residents are affected by the closure of Harry Stanley House and Edwin Rogers House




Two sheltered housing schemes in Coventry are to be closed as they are not fit for purpose.

Residents at Harry Stanley House, in Bell Green, and Edwin Rogers House, in Canley, are to be moved to alternative accommodation after Whitefriars Housing took the decision to close both buildings.

The plans were announced last week at the same time as a consultation process began. One-to-one meetings will take place during September.

A total of 38 residents have been offered new homes at Jack Ball House, in Potters Green, and George Rowley House, in Canley , which are both currently being refurbished and are due for completion in March 2017.

Whitefriars Housing say they will meet any reasonable costs associated with moving, while residents will receive a statutory compensation payment if they have lived in their home for over 12 months.

The work is part of an £8million investment programme in older people’s housing across the city.

Catherine Collis, Whitefriars Housing’s assistant director of specialist housing services, said: “The well-being of our residents lies at the heart of this process and we accept that moving home can be a difficult time.

“A housing officer has been allocated to each resident and will work closely with them and their family to find suitable alternative accommodation and assist with every aspect of their move.

“The properties we used to provide with shared bathing facilities are unpopular and unsuitable for the 21st century. People want, and deserve, a higher standard of accommodation and that is what we aim to deliver across all of our homes by 2020.”

The future of the two sites being closed will be announced in due course.

Residential homes previously shut down to be demolished

Two residential homes which were closed are set to be demolished and transformed into new homes.

Three planning applications were previously put in for Belgrave Lodge, Attoxhall Road , the former Harry Stanley House, Armfield Street and the former Edwin Rogers House, Wendiburgh Street.

Following the submissions in August 2017, Harry Stanley House was refused, and the other two withdrawn.

The reason for refusal provided by the Council in respect of the Harry Stanley House application was that the applicant did not agree to pay a developer contribution towards health care, requested by the NHS, and, therefore, the Council considered that infrastructure needs generated by the development had not been satisfactorily secured.

To avoid the other two planning applications being refused on similar grounds, the applicant decided to withdraw the applications.

In the interim, the applications are being resubmitted, using the ‘free go’ in order to seek planning permission again.

This Statement sets out the applicant’s case as to why they do not consider that a contribution towards the NHS is justified.

The consultation responses from the NHS fail to recognise that each of the three sites was previously in residential use, either as a care home or sheltered accommodation for the elderly.

The existing facilities have all closed in the last 6 months and, therefore, have until very recently been in use.

Residents of the three facilities would, therefore, have been using NHS services in the City up until the point that they closed.

Clearly, the closure of the three homes would have resulted in a reduction of the number of people using NHS services.