‘Milestone’ reached as consultation launched over £14m Tweedbank Care Village

Scottish Borders Council is holding two community engagement sessions to give the local community and other interested stakeholders the opportunity to have their say on outline plans for Tweedbank Care Village.

The development is currently at the pre-planning stage and as part of that, two drop-in sessions have been arranged to give people the chance to provide feedback prior to the plans being formally submitted to the council in October.

The sessions are to be staged on Monday, September 4 and Monday , September 25, both between 4 and 8pm at the Inspire Tweedbank Digital Centre of Excellence building, adjacent to the train station.

Information being presented will include the proposed site and building plans as well as 3D images of the development.

Members of the project team will be available to provide an update on progress generally and answer any questions that attendees may have.

There is no need to book, but if anyone has any queries or would like to provide feedback via email, please contact: [email protected].

Councillor David Parker, SBC’s executive member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “This is an important milestone in our plans for the development of the Tweedbank Care Village and I would encourage anyone with an interest in the project to drop into one of the sessions.

“It’s an ideal opportunity for people to see that progress that is being made and speak to us about the proposed designs and next steps for the project.”

The Tweedbank Care Village in Tweedbank Drive would incorporate three new two-storey residential buildings for the provision of elderly care residents, including amenity facilities, associated car parking, landscaping, bike/ bin storage and an energy centre.

The plans for the care village first surfaced in 2020 after council representatives paid a fact-finding visit to Hogeweyk dementia village in the Netherlands, to look at new way of providing care services.

The care village concept is a move away from institutionalised care to create a “neighbourhood that is part of a broader society”.

An earlier report on the proposal said it represented “a paradigm shift in care”, adding: “It is an alternative model for traditional nursing, residential and intermediate care, which is based on de-institutionalisation and transformation, where people live in small, homely settings, with like-minded peers and are supported by family, staff and volunteers to live as normal a life as possible.

“The operational model provides a high quality person-centred provision for six to 10 residents per unit, equating to a total capacity for 60 residents, in a vibrant homely setting supporting unique needs, lifestyles and personal preferences for living, care and well-being for people dealing mainly with severe dementia and frailty.

“The units themselves have their own living room, kitchen and single en-suite rooms. This will be home for these residents, so the houses will be furnished as such, emulating in the main the original homes of the residents.”

The authority had earmarked a budget of more than £22.5m for the provision at Tweedbank and also Hawick Care Village, on land south-east of Guthrie Drive at Stirches.

Both Waverley Care Home in Hawick and Garden View Intermediate Care Home in Galashiels would close in order to allow the plans to progress.