Larkfleet Homes has started construction work on a ‘continuing care retirement community’ (CCRC) in Oakham, Rutland.
It will provide 62 one and two-bedroom homes for ‘independent living’, 54 properties for ‘assisted living’ for people with particular care needs and a 60-bed specialist care home for people with dementia.
The CCRC is part of Larkfleet’s Oakham Heights development – a major urban expansion of Oakham being built on land between the Oakham bypass and Barleythorpe Road.
Bourne-based Larkfleet is starting on the essential infrastructure work – the installation of roads and services – at Oakham that will permit construction of homes to commence later this year.
The independent living retirement village will be developed under Larkfleet’s award-winning ‘The Croft’ brand.
Larkfleet's first development under The Croft brand at Bourne won a Silver Award in the keenly-contested Best Retirement Development category in the prestigious WhatHouse? Awards in 2014. The following year The Croft at Baston was shortlisted in the same award and was named runner-up in the HouseBuilder Awards for best retirement housing.
In total, more than 800 high quality homes – including 'affordable' homes for local people – will eventually be constructed in several phases at Oakham Heights as part of a development programme running until around 2027.
In addition to new housing, the plans include offices, parks and open spaces, children's play areas, allotments and a new local centre. The plans also include a new hotel with an adjoining pub/restaurant, enhancements to the ecology of Barleythorpe Brook which runs through the site and improved transport links with new cycle, footpath and bus routes. The plans also include planting a substantial number of new trees.
Integral parts of the development will be a new permanent enhanced and enlarged home for the Rutland County Show and new improved facilities for the town's football, rugby and other clubs.
The Oakham Heights CCRC will provide a much-needed facility for the aging population of Rutland. It will also create around 90 jobs for local people.
