Plan for £30m Wolverhampton dementia care centre

A £30 million dementia care centre could be built in Wolverhampton on land previously earmarked for a leisure development and hotel, it emerged today.

Council chiefs have just lodged plans for a centre featuring 60 bedrooms as well as treatment and day centres. It is being lined up for part of the old Metal Castings Factory site on land near to Waitrose supermarket off Penn Road. The proposals come after fears on rising numbers of dementia sufferers in the city.

Council bosses said they expected the number of sufferers to rise from 3,000 people currently to 4,315 by 2030.

The plans form part of a review of dementia care services, which will see families offered training on how to cope with relatives with the condition. The scheme will be funded through a private finance initiative through the Department of Health.

The outline planning application for the centre is soon expected to go before council planners, and an outline business case will be submitted to the Department of Health by the end of August.

Detailed design work will begin early next year with a view to putting together a final business case next summer. At the moment it is hoped that work will begin on site in late 2012, with the service opening to the public for the first time in 2013.

Sarah Norman, Wolverhampton City Council's director for adults and community, said today: "This new facility will transform the services for people with dementia living in Wolverhampton."