Brunswick apartments open in Heywood

One of the bedrooms at Brunswick apartments in Heywood

The Brunswick pub on Bridge Street, Heywood has been converted into six bespoke flats for people with learning difficulties and other needs.

The pub has been converted by Lifeways and Independent Housing Living to provide one of the first supported living apartment complexes in the borough.

Liz Boswell, Referrals and Assessment Manager for Lifeways said: “As far as I am aware this is the first apartment style complex in this area. There are going to be residential accommodations but we wanted to step away from that and provide a bespoke place for people to live and be independent.”

Each flat comes with a bedroom, kitchen and a bathroom for each tenant with staff living quarters also on site to provide 24 hours assistance to tenants who need it.

An open day was held on Wednesday 30 April to show the flats off to potential tenants and their families.

“It is about showing off the flats and showing people what is available for them in this area. We have had a good response and had a number of people coming in to have a look and make enquiries about the flats,” added Liz.

The Heywood location was chosen based on the space available. Tim Dumford, Property Manager for Independent Housing Limited, said: “I think it is a good space. It is a good town centre location with easy access for people and their families and that is something we wanted.”

Liz added: “This was an empty building as well and we wanted to utilise the space that is currently available instead of building a new building somewhere.”

Cakes were also available at the open day donated by Christina Fraser at Cake Away Rochdale. The cakes were part of a bake sale held to support the ‘Light it up Blue’ campaign for Autism Awareness month.

It is now hoped that further developments similar to this will be developed in others areas of the borough.

“There is potential for other developments,” said Liz.

Tim added: “There have been discussions about other developments in the area with us looking for buildings that could be used because there certainly is a demand for this type of accommodation.”

The flats are now ready for people to move in to with one gentleman already making the transition process to moving in.

Tenants are usually referred to the service through Social Services.

Contact Liz Boswell for further information: 01302 344255 or 07769216135.