Minutes:
DECLARATION OF INTEREST
Councillor Yuill declared an interest in the subject matter of the following article by virtue of his employment and withdrew from the meeting prior to any discussion on the matter.
Reference was made to article 45 of the minute of its previous meeting, when the development of 49a, 49b, and 49c Beattie Avenue as a property for Care in the Community use was approved in principle, and the Director of Housing and Environment was instructed to develop options in this regard, and to report back thereafter detailing the life cycle costs and development costs associated with these options. The Committee now had before a report by the Director of Housing and Environment which detailed the information requested at the aforementioned meeting.
The report outlined possible examples for the future use of the property as follows:
(1) Elmwood Hospital Resettlement Project - Revenue funding had been identified within 2010/11 budget to provide support services to a number of service users with learning disabilities who currently live in Elmwood Unit, Royal Cornhill Hospital, and a number of whom were designated as delayed discharge and were unable to leave hospital as appropriate accommodation could not be found.
(2) Transitions Project - The project would provide accommodation, with support for young people moving on to adult services. Revenue funding for support services should be available in 2010/11.
(3) Reprovisioning of Care Home - Granton Place was currently registered as a care home facility providing accommodation for people with learning disabilities, however, the property was no longer fit for purpose and was in need of urgent reprovisioning. Revenue funding would transfer from the existing service, with service users moving to individualised budgets.
Appended to the report were details of the costs in relation to the two options for the development of the property (option one – convert to four flats; option two – convert to six flats), and a table detailing a ten year life cycle costing model for both options.
The report recommended:-
that the Committee
(a) approve option one (to convert 49 Beattie Avenue (Ashgrove House) into 4 flats) and instruct the Director of Housing and Environment to make provision in the Housing Capital Programme 2010/11 to develop 49 Beattie Avenue (Ashgrove House) as detailed within the report; and
(b) instruct the Director of Housing and Environment to work in partnership with the Director of Social Care and Wellbeing to develop the most suitable Care in the Community option; explore all funding options available to undertake this project; and report back after the summer recess with recommendations in this regard.
The Committee resolved:-
(i) to not approve either option one or two at this stage;
(ii) to instruct the Director of Housing and Environment to liaise with the Director of Social Care and Wellbeing regarding options for the funding of this project, and the input of the Social Care and Wellbeing Service in this regard, and to report back on the outcome of these discussions after the summer recess;
(iii) to instruct, that if the Social Care and Wellbeing Service are not in a position to contribute significantly to this project, that a report be submitted after the summer recess detailing costed options in relation to converting 49 Beattie Avenue into mainstream housing; and
(iv) to refer this report to the Social Care and Wellbeing Committee for consideration.