Plans have been revealed for the construction of a new high quality care home at the prestigious Mount Oswald development in Durham City.
North East employer The Banks Group has signed an agreement with the Yorkshire-headquartered Torsion Care to provide a care facility on The Drive, as part of the ongoing redevelopment of the Mount Oswald site.
The care home will comprise 74 ensuite bedrooms within a three and a half-storey development in a secure, comfortable facility that will be designed to provide a high quality of care and wellness for its residents and staff.
A planning application for the project has now been submitted to Durham County Council, with a view to it coming before the Council’s planning committee before the end of the year.
Subject to planning approval being obtained, Torsion is expecting to start work on site early in 2024 – and the company is also looking to make further investments in the region by using the Mount Oswald facility as the centre for a network of further care facilities in other North East locations.
Headquartered in Leeds, Torsion Care sits within a wider group of companies within Torsion Group, which develops, constructs and operates large accommodation-based schemes, including care homes, retirement living apartments and residential properties.
Ian Ward, development director at Torsion Care, says: “This is a site that we’ve been working on with Banks for some time and we’re extremely pleased to have reached this agreement.
“Mount Oswald provides a high quality, well-presented location with excellent transport links, and fits in perfectly with our growing portfolio of care facilities in Yorkshire and the Midlands.
“Our business model works around clusters of different properties operating together across specific geographical locations, and with a number of other regional locations already under consideration, it’s a formula that we’re looking to repeat here, with the Mount Oswald care home sitting at the centre of our North East operations.”
The Banks Group has been progressing its comprehensive development proposals for Mount Oswald since they were first approved by Durham County Council a decade ago.
It was designed by Banks in support of the County Council’s vision of Durham City acting as a driver of economic growth in the county, and now includes around 290 completed properties that have been built by David Wilson Homes and Bellway Homes.
Earlier this year, the Banks Group announced plans for Durham City’s most exclusive residential development at the Mount Oswald site, with nine luxury homes set to be built by the family firm’s new dedicated regional housebuilding company, Banks Homes.
Further information on other developing aspects of the site, including plans for a convenience store and a coffee shop, are set to be revealed in the coming months.
Durham County Council is continuing to progress plans to convert the Manor House into The Story history centre and the new Durham University colleges at Mount Oswald have been occupied since September 2020.
John Ruddick, senior property development manager at Banks Property, adds: “Mount Oswald is continuing to develop into the kind of outstanding, high quality, low density, accessible neighbourhood that we described at the very beginning of the project, and we’re very pleased that Torsion has chosen it as its first North East investment location.
“Their vision and aspirations for the site match our own and we look forward to seeing their project progressing in the coming months.
“As a long-established Durham-based family business, we are proud to have been able to deliver on the vision for Mount Oswald that we outlined more than a decade ago, and will continue to keep local communities informed of future developments at the site as they come forward.”
More than £4.2million will have been allocated by Banks to pay for substantial improvements for the local community by the time of the overall development’s completion.
These include improvements to local highways, contributions to the construction of a new community building at Lowes Barns and the provision of additional classrooms at two local schools, St Oswald’s Church of England and Durham St Margaret’s Primary.