Elderly to stay active with farming therapy at proposed £9m care home
A £9mcare home that aims to offer elderly residents farming therapy has been planned for a disused pub site in Solihull.
GNM Developments has submitted a planning application for the new 72-bed development on the former site of the Prince of Wales pub on the High Street in Solihull Lodge.
The facility will host Solihull’s first Green Care Farming initiative which involves growing fruit and vegetables and keeping livestock such as Pygmy goats, Berkshire pigs, miniature cattle, Babydoll Southdown sheep, chickens and beehives.
The care home, which will employ up to 90 staff, plans to have Covid-secure ensuite wet rooms.
Other benefits include a specialist dementia ward, a hair and nail salon, coffee room, cinema and virtual reality room, plus an infection-controlled visiting area.
Gerald Manton, managing director of GNM Developments, said: “We are thrilled to announce that a planning application has been submitted for this new state-of-the-art care home.
“The Green Care Farming that we are planning will provide important stimuli to residents and will include a number of therapeutic strategies such as farm-animal related therapy, horticultural therapy, and general farm-based therapy.
“The livestock area will be designed specifically for therapeutic purposes, where animals are pets.
“The additional stimulus from the animals includes odours from hay, silage, and food being prepared, sounds from animals, touch, petting animals, and the tastes from fruit and vegetables grown.
“We regard this as the essential element that sets our proposed care home apart from anything else currently offered by care homes within the region.”
GNM Developments is based in Birmingham and has previously focused on student accommodation and residential developments.
GNM has commissioned designs for the care home from architects Hugo Fitzgerald and Adam Graham, from Broadway Malyan Architects.
The planning application follows work by planning specialists from Cerda Planning and Carterwood.
Other experts involved in assisting GNM Developments on the purchase of the site include Paul Newby from Matthew Phillips Surveyors, James Danks from Finance 4 Business, Richard Osborn from Excello Law, and Richard Gill from BNP Paribas.
GNM commissioned assistance on the design and planning from Martin Rowe of PMP Consultants, Nicholas Beecham and George Innes from HSP Consulting Engineers, Richard Twist from Jonathan Richard Associates, and Ian Millership from CTS Traffic & Transportation.
The planning application was submitted to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council earlier in August.
