Work has begun on a new £13.5million development which will see 64 “independent later living” apartments built in Lichfield city centre.
The Quonians Yard scheme by Lifestory Pegasus began with a ceremony attended by the Mayor of Lichfield, Cllr Robert Yardley.
Designed by Birmingham architects Gould Singleton, the development will be made up of three buildings with a. mixture of one and two-bedroom apartments.
Known as Pegasus Lichfield Bonds, the scheme will also include a communal lounge and garden, patio seating areas and a social kitchen.
Regional managing director Mike Gill said:
“The milestone of breaking ground on the site forms part of our wider ambition to create more high-quality homes for independent later living across the UK.
“Our passion is creating communities which enable and empower our customers to live their fullest lives, regardless of their age or life stage.
“As our second development in Lichfield, we look forward to bringing forward another social community with wellbeing at its heart, and Pegasus Lichfield Bonds will provide much needed, high quality later-living homes in the community.
“We’re confident that this is the perfect space for those seeking their next chapter, and I look forward to seeing further progress made on this exciting development.”
Mike Gill
Cool, there’s a shortage of retirement apartments, so this is a welcome development.
/s
This seems to be the type of development we can expect from Friarsgate too. Not much incentive for those of us who are a long way off from “later living” to stay in Lichfield when such schemes are dominating and prices continues to rise.
Will these units be for sale or rent as social housing, I assume independent later living means elderly if they are for rent to maybe
people with less mobility and income great but if for sale to wealthier people not so good, we have enough high end elderly only flats ( sorry apartments) in Lichfield.
Is the mail Litchfield building these homes for British people or food people coming into the country for more countries to live in the UK and I think that’s wrong when the government cannot look on the government cannot look after the people he’s got already living in Great Britain
Nigel please rewrite your post in clear concise English so that it can be understood
I have just walked past the retirement centre at the Rotten Row / Birmingham Road site at the top of Green Hill. It has all the appeal of a Russian Gulag. Architecturally without merit.
So now yet another. I asked a friend, whose parents had lived in one such establishment near Beacon Park, whether it had proved a good investment after they had died. ‘Well it gave us children some peace of mind but at a very high cost.’ He replied.
These schemes are popping up like mushrooms in Lichfield. I don’t know what the councils thinking or motives can be. I do know that the imbalance will be massively detrimental for any flexibility the city may need in the future.
Lichfield = God’s waiting room
I think Nigel just about sums it up!! ;)
@ML, I think you are being very unkind to Nigel, he is quite clearly trying very hard to get his message across, and if you cannot read through and understand it I feel very sorry for you, but do not belittle some one who in your opinion does not write in clear concise English
Genuine question, where are all these old people coming from?
At the risk of posting something out of step with the majority of posters on here, it’s perhaps worth remembering that Lichfield is not unique in having an ageing population. In the next 25 years, the number of people in England older than 85 will double to 2.6 million.
I wonder if Lichfield Live 2027 will be full of people bemoaning the fact that there isn’t enough independent living provision for older people… Just saying.
@P – The older people are coming from the existing population. Not all demographic changes are a result of migration.
Asellus aquaticus – valid points. But this issue was being talked about 10 years ago as regards Lichfield becoming a “destination” for retirees. They were giving up the coastal retirement plans and moving inland. https://www.economist.com/britain/2012/03/17/gods-new-waiting-rooms
So it is an influx, as well as those being drawn from the existing population.
That article is a decade ago. Plenty of time for LDC to prepare itself and more importantly prepare the wider population for this influx. But the last 10 years have proved a wasted decade, mainly with the preoccupation on what to do with Friarsgate and the pursuit of a series of flawed regeneration and redevelopment plans for that site. Add in the on-going leisure centre debacle and a few other notable failures (such as the land sale to Bromford) and you can begin to understand the level of frustration, annoyance and mistrust that is so often reflected in comments on Lichfield Live’s pages.
LDC were given plenty of warning and time to get the district and particularly Lichfield ready for what we are now seeing. But it failed.
Woody if I can’t make head or tail of what it is meant to say I can say so. I don’t know the posters circumstances and I don’t suppose you do.
The article states that this is their second development in Lichfield. Finding how the other one works will probably show how this one will. What is needed is to encourage older tenants of social housing into these type of dwellings so freeing up family homes. Don’t hold your breath.
As for those who buy retirement flats their heirs often find they don’t get full value for them when they come to sell due to restrictions in contracts.
Nigel’s an English Nationalist.
If his written English isn’t up to our usual standards then no worries, his intention to become a fully integrated English Nationalist is obvious.
It’s a great way of making money while retaining the value of the freehold and bring able to screw the returns above inflation as the old pop off. BTW I’m 70 and no way am I going anywhere like that even if I end up crawling up my stairs.
@Woody, well said. I’ve noted other posts from Nigel in a similar vein that were met with ridicule.
I don’t know who he is and he may have very valid points that for whatever reason he can’t articulate through the written word. Let us not be unkind to others.
Lichfield, gets better by the day for old people. Gets shi**er by the day for everyone else. Thanks LDC.
To counter my previous comment, maybe I’m being a tad generous and without my Enigma machine to hand can’t quite de-cipher the post. If he really is an English Nationalist then God help them.
Thinking the demographics of this area is due to an ageing population seems naive. The proportion of old people is very skewed.
Excellent. More posh flats for geriatrics. Meanwhile our local primary schools are at bursting capacity and the queue for the Doctors is three weeks long. At least we will get a cinema soon. Ps can someone tell Nigel his keyboard is broken.
OMG..not more retirement properties !!!!
“Groundbreaking ceremony.” Wow.
“Wellbeing at its heart”. Yeah, right. “Exciting development”. Of course. Yes! I’m incredibly excited to see LDC promote yet another development for the retired population. We really, really, really need this in Lichfield. The mind boggles.
Really???? More retirement flats- what a joke…….
Lichfield is a Massive building site. Wherever you look houses are going up schools are expanding. Shops are decreasing. Now another. Later living proposal. Although greenhill has taken forever to. Complete. There is an imbalance do we really want to be known as old people’s city. The aim as you mature in age.that you stay as young as you are able
Mixing with all ages makes the world go round. The council needs to ask people’s ideas not just spend.
money.
With this continuing focus on building housing for ‘older people’, of whom
I class as one, isn’t it time that the planners prioritised the building of a new health centre. The current ones are all seriously understaffed and oversubscribed, with many patients complaining how difficult it is to get appointments.
These” later living” buildings must be very very lucrative for the council, just give planning permission to anyone that asks, as long as the question does not include the words” cheap, affordable , social “. Just build apartments, which must sell, or rent, for what to the average person, must be an eye watering amount, then just let the cash roll in. I would imagine that the council have clawed back the wasted £17m from the Friarsgate fiasco in no time. The city’s rich history and its indigenous people have just been trampled on and forgotten in the rush for easy money.
Lichfield: A wonderful place to die
If I was old I’d think twice about being in area with such poor healthcare. It’s not just the lack of primary care. Where do you go for secondary services, cancer care, respiratory, cardio etc. Out to Burton hospital or Stafford? They’re terrible. If you need anything more then it’s Derby, Wolverhampton or Birmingham. The healthcare infrastructure for the demographics isnt here.
When I went to school many years ago I was told that Lichfield meant field of the dead in Latin !!! Now I believe it means fields of the NEARLY dead ? SAD 😢😂
Grumpy old Man – Agros mortis might well be the Latin. More likely to be Old English: open place near Lectotum.
‘Field’ usually means open space. As in Sheffield is ‘open space near the Sheaf.
Well that’s it then. A crematorium for the Friasgate site?
New properties behind green hill doctors are for the elderly, there electric heating only , an idiot must have been involved in that pathetic choice of heating
Also it’s become impossible to get doctors appointments, its bizarre when commuter appointments go to all the retired when they are supposed to be for people who work. It’s not viable to keep building more retirement villages without increasing the doctors and remembering that other ages need to see doctors to. My surgery at Greenhill is literally gods waiting room.
If they are new to the area I hope these elders don’t need the doctors too often, they might find getting an appointment tricky!
I bought my family sized house from an elderly person who has lived in Lichfield her whole life. She couldn’t cope with a larger property any more so bought an apartment in the centre of Lichfield so she could stay in the place she has been for over 80 years and loves. It’s no crime to get old, it’s normal and expected. When you get old, if you are lucky, please think about how you would like others to treat and think of you.
No it’s not a crime to get old. But when are there going to be some ‘starter’ homes built here like those built back in the eighties. Give young people a chance to buy their own home instead of a lifetime of renting. I am 62 and I dont ever want to go into a retirement complex surrounded by old people. I live on boley park in a four bed house and in time will move to a smaller house. I can think of nothing worse than be surrounded by moaning old people who are on the ‘committee’ with all their petty rules.
What planet are you guys on? “Starter homes” are being built everywhere in Lichfield. Have you not seen that Lichfield is being encircled by tacky, tiny 2 bed boxes with miniature gardens? These are the starter homes. And hundreds more are to come for south Lichfield.
I’m all in favour of some larger, more attractive and unique homes being built to attract people with skills and resources who can help support the local economy of our city.