The UK's latest 'extra care' village is complete and has opened its doors to its first residents.

Located in a priority regeneration area, Mill Rise, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, north Staffordshire, is one of the first schemes outside London to combine extra care housing for the over 55s with a state-of-the-art primary care centre, integrating previously disparate health services.

It has been developed on the site of a former factory, by Aspire Housing, North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust and Prima 200 North Staffordshire, the local LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) company.

The £15m scheme will enable older people to maintain an independent lifestyle within a supportive environment with vital services on site - avoiding the insularity which sometimes characterises this type of accommodation. 

It is the first new build project in the heart of an Area of Major Intervention, and, as a landmark building, is expected to serve as a catalyst for the wider regeneration of the Knutton, Mile House and Cross Heath area.  It will increase its desirability as a place to live, create local employment opportunities and contribute to the viability of local services.

Designed to improve residents' quality of life as a means of promoting good health, the three-storey steel-framed development provides 60 one- and two-bedroom extra care apartments for rent and shared ownership. 

It incorporates three GP practices (accessible to residents through a linked corridor, and to the wider community through a separate entrance), a pharmacy, restaurant, café, bar, and hair salon, in a secure village environment.

Healthcare will be available to around 5,000 people in the local communities of Knutton and Cross Heath, helping them avoid long trips for hospital appointments.

Mill Rise will host NHS dental services alongside physiotherapy, podiatry, phlebotomy (blood testing), speech and language therapy, baby clinics, quit smoking sessions and community nursing services, while a fitness suite provides rehabilitation services and physiotherapy.

The scheme will cater for residents with a mix of low, medium and high care needs.

Care staff will be available round the clock, enabling residents to live independently in their own homes (all with their own front door) with flexible care and support on hand if required, at a level to suit individual circumstances.

Residents' facilities include a lounge area and conservatory, landscaped gardens (including seating, water features and a large outdoor chess board), raised plant beds and greenhouses, hobby room, wireless  broadband connection, community alarm pull cords, CCTV door entry systems, laundry room and scooter storage, with charging points on all floors.

Each apartment has keyless door entry, and offers a walk-in shower, fully fitted kitchen, low surface temperature radiators, and anti-scald taps and showers. With lifts to all floors, Mill Rise is wheelchair-accessible throughout.  Assisted bathing is available in an adapted bathroom on the ground floor.  Every bedroom has fixing points enabling a hoist to be easily installed if necessary.

There is also a guest room allowing residents' family members and friends to stay overnight when necessary.

A hot meals service will give residents the option of eating with friends as an alternative to cooking at home, and includes a takeaway facility.

In allocating places, priority will be given to people who meet the health needs criteria set by the partner agencies.

The development has been funded by Aspire Housing (£6,900,000), Prima 200 (£5,487,790), the Homes and Communities Agency (£4,300,000), and RENEW (£500,000).

Other partners include Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council, and Staffordshire County Council.

Local people have been consulted throughout the development process, and a Friends of Mill Rise group, open to all prospective residents and the surrounding community, meets monthly to review progress and influence decision-making.

Local labour and local suppliers have been used as much as possible.

With high levels of insulation, a mechanical heat recovery provided as an eco-friendly alternative to air conditioning, and information packs provided to all residents about local public transport options, the scheme has achieved a 'Good' BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment) rating.

Mill Rise takes its name from The Cotton Mill in Cross Heath, which was built by Richard Thompson in 1797 and continued to manufacture textiles until the late 1960s.

The site is expected to be further developed to create a further 160 mixed tenure homes.

Mill Rise occupies a 4.93 hectare site next to Morrisons in Lower Milehouse Lane, Cross Heath to which residents have easy pedestrian access.  It is in a residential area close to frequent bus routes, shops, services and open space.

The lead contractor for the project is Mansells Construction.

The design has been based on the principles of integration and ownership to help ensure the development reaches its potential as catalyst for change in the AMI area.

Key has been the creation of a public space connecting the development to the wider area and breaking down the boundary of the site with an accessible, supervised and active 'transitional space' between the street and the public areas of the building.

This public space or 'piazza' is intended as a focus for the local community, anchoring the whole scheme in the heart of the community.

By creating a landmark building that addresses both Lower Milehouse Lane and forms the corner into the remaining development site, the redevelopment forms a hub for the wider AMI master plan.

It is this profile and accessibility that is of benefit to the development in delivering the Extra Care housing and health investment being made in the local community and attracting new residents.

The design takes into account residents' need for privacy, dignity, and easy access, along with amenity requirements and clinical considerations. The need to maintain privacy and amenity on a busy junction adjacent to a supermarket created a number of design challenges, which were overcome or accommodated in the building and site layout.

For example external landscaped areas in the form of courtyards are enclosed by the building form.

The entrance piazza is formed by a busy public and unrestricted open space with hard landscaping and formal planting. This 'external entrance' is a space for activity and meeting supervised by the residents and the public to improve security for the development as a whole.

Opposite this space and acting as a buffer between the Extra Care accommodation and the clinical space of the Primary Care Centre is a courtyard garden, which offers residents and staff the opportunity for privacy.

At the heart of the accommodation, accessed from the lounge area and overlooked by the majority of the apartments, is the principal residents' garden. Buffered from the supermarket and access road by the north and south wings of the building, this open space provides a semi-public yet secure space for residents.

Overall the scale of the design is tempered by a vernacular language to create a striking yet approachable building. Key elements such as the roofs are exaggerated to give the building presence, whilst materials for the building and site anchor the proposals in the landscape.