Green light for resource centre for adults with learning disabilities

12.10.00am GMT Thu 19th Mar 2009

Sutton's Lib Dem administration has given the go-ahead for work on a new building which will offer superb new facilities for adults with profound learning disabilities. The advanced project has been described as 'unique in the country'.

The building, in Anton Crescent, Sutton, will provide therapeutic environments for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Its range of facilities will include physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, art and music therapy and sensory environments. It will be accessible 7 days a week and will support the development of life skills.

The new building will consist of two floors of therapy rooms including a hydrotherapy pool, and will have continuous disabled access to all floors. It will be built to the highest environmental standards, and will have sun pipes that project from the roof to provide the building with natural daylight. Solar panels will be incorporated on the roof to reduce carbon emissions.

The new Resource Centre will cost £4.1m in total, and will be managed by Sutton Council with the Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust contributing £1.5m to the capital costs. The Council's Lib Dem Executive agreed on 9 March to release £2.6m in capital funds alongside the capital transfer agreement from the PCT to allow work on the building to start.

The new Centre will be located at the end of Northspur Road, immediately northeast of Hallmead Day Centre, on council land which used to be a transport depot. It will open in early 2010, providing better facilities to replace those now used in the special care unit at Hallmead. The centre will provide services for most existing Special Care Unit users, young people and Sutton residents being resettled from Orchard Hill and NHS Campus Homes.

Cllr Colin Stears, the Lib Dem Executive Member for Adult Social Services, said: "The centre forms part of a major shake-up of services for adults with learning disabilities in Sutton. It is a landmark project and will be unique in the country. The exciting and ambitious project shows Sutton is leading the way in providing first class facilities for adults with profound learning disabilities, at a time when many authorities are cutting back on services for vulnerable people."