OUTLINE plans to create 14 new build homes in Dumfries for people with learning disabilities have been given the thumbs up by councillors.
Cunninghame Housing Association has drawn up a proposal to build the specially-designed properties on land to the rear of Nithbank, which elected members agreed to include in the region’s overall Strategic Housing Investment Plan.
The ambitious plans are still in very early stages and Cunninghame, a registered social landlord, would still have to secure all of the £4.5m funding required.
A report on the matter, which was tabled at the council’s economy and infrastructure committee last Tuesday, reads: “This development once completed will provide homes for some of our most vulnerable residents.
“The design process is progressing in collaboration with health colleagues and service providers to ensure homes meet the particular needs of the target client group.”
The council and Cunninghame Housing Association would collaborate with the region’s Adult Health and Social Care Partnership to deliver new affordable homes for people with particular needs.
Lochar Councillor Linda Dorward welcomed the move, but also requested that the council considers future provision for looked after children – who sometimes struggle to gain their own tenancy. She said: “There’s a shortage of specific housing for looked after children when they leave residential or foster care.
“I wonder if that could added considered and added as well.”
Jamie Little, the council’s strategic housing and regeneration team leader, said: “In terms of the accessible homes, this is a specific project for people living with learning disabilities.
“But we do have very much an ongoing working relationship with the Adult Health and Social Care Partnership to identify particular needs.
“Each project can morph and change as we go through the planning process, and a significant part of that is identifying what the demand is in the area.
He added: “In terms of looked after children, we are in touch with our colleagues in the social work service about some specific projects that may come forward, particularly in the Dumfries area to try and alleviate some of the pressures that they’re feeling as well.”
