Planning Permission Granted for New Wing

The trustees of Bridgemead Care Home are delighted to announce that planning permission has been granted to enhance and carry out a major upgrade to their current building in St John’s Road, Bath. The new wing will extend services for vulnerable older people in a dementia-friendly setting. The building will also be protected from flooding. The trustees need to raise £4,400,000 to carry out the work.

Work is planned in three stages:
Stage 1. Flood Resilience £670,000

Stage 2. New South Wing £2,740,000
A new south wing will create an enclosed external courtyard and restructuring will provide 12 en-suite rooms which are dementia friendly, with new equipment such as bariatric hoists to help patients out of bed, and into a wheelchair.

Stage 3. Improvements £990,000

A riverside lounge and an upgrade of five residents’ rooms with en-suite facilities, and upgrades to the main reception area are planned.

Geoffrey Weekes, Chair of the trustees, says: “We have a lovely home with caring staff and have maintained our values which are driven by the same Christian principles on which Bridgemead was founded. Yet we have to be realistic and adapt to today’s challenges. We are delighted that planning permission for our imaginative but sympathetic extension, designed by SRA Architects, has been granted and are excited to start fundraising.”

As well as extending the Care Home it will be protected from further flooding. On Christmas Eve 2013, the River Avon was dangerously high and was only 5 inches or 130mm from flooding the ground floor of Bridgemead. The 32 older Bath residents would have to be evacuated. How could this be done, and where could the vulnerable residents go on Christmas Eve? Fortunately, levels receded and residents and families could enjoy Christmas in the comfortable homely environment of Bridgemead. However, every time there is heavy rain, the manager, Pam Bourton, says “I have an awful feeling and worry we might have to consider evacuation procedures again.”

This threat coupled with more complex care needs in our older population often with increasing levels of dementia have been the spur to prepare vital new building plans.
The plans also incorporate a community suite where services can be offered to older vulnerable members of the community who are not residents.

Plans have been granted approval on 5/6/2017.