London & South East

Extending care in Westerham

Westerham Residential, Westerham village, Kent

A project to extend facilities to an existing residential care home in Kent has been hailed a great success.

Located on the edge of Westerham village, Westerham Place is a privately run, family care home, set within an acre of gardens. Westerham Place delivers the highest standard of care to both full-time residents and post-operative convalescent patients and is close to a number of local amenities.

Montreux Living who run a successful and growing portfolio of high quality care homes across the South of England, implemented the project. This has provided Westerham Place with a seven-bedroom extension and an associated quiet room. Work began on the project in May 2013, with the extension handed over to the client as planned on 20th December 2013 ahead of its official opening in January 2014.

Westerham-based company, Bisley Contracting was the main contractor on the extension project, whilst Paul Hudson Associates provided all architectural services.

Speaking to Premier Construction magazine about the completion of the new extension, Paul Hudson, said:

“Montreux Living is absolutely delighted with the work. The original building was built in the 19th Century and was extended in 1996 with the creation of a new east wing. My task on this project was to obtain planning permission for the project and to design a further extension which could perfectly match the existing building. The design philosophy was effectively to provide a continuation of the building where no one could see the join.”

Paul added:

“This is a seven-bedroom extension, all en-suite rooms, alongside a quiet room with bi-fold glass doors which open out onto the garden and an additional lift. The work that we completed is up to date with the latest requirements and standards, meeting all building regulations.”

Whilst work took place on the project, the care home remained open, so all efforts were made to ensure disruption to residents was kept to a minimum.

Paul said:

“Special consideration was made all the way through this project to ensure that the works were carried out with as little disruption as possible and certainly in a manner that would not cause any alarm to residents.

“We held long discussions with Montreux Living and Bisley Contracting as to how all this would be achieved and I am happy to say that everything ran smoothly on the project, without any problems occurring.”

To complete the project a small amount of landscaping work – which was required by the planning consent – was conducted. During this aspect of the project a number of existing trees were maintained, whilst new trees and some planting was implemented.

Paul said:

“Westerham Place is an exceptionally good care home and working on this project was very important to us. Montreux Living has a number of care homes in their portfolio and we are now involved in a new, 60-bed care home in Camberley for the company.

“Montreux Living also has a number of care homes which they have purchased over the last 18 months and which we are currently refurbishing where necessary. These homes have been previously owned by other companies, so with Montreux Living purchasing them, the view is to update them and future proof so that they stand ahead of the current regulations.”

For more information about Westerham Place, please visit: www.montreuxliving.co.uk/westerham.

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Roma Publications