A NEW development on the site of the former Lymm Hotel is due to be open next year.

Forty five retirement apartments, a 66-bed care home and a children’s nursery are being built on the site of the historic hotel on Whitbarrow Road.

Programme’s like Channel 4’s ‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’ have popularised the idea of two different generations joining forces for mutual gain, but the idea was there from a Timperley scheme in 2011 that Chris McGoff, director at the McGoff Group who are behind the scheme, was involved in.

They have evolved that idea as they did all the work and then leased the children’s day nursery to a childcare operator. On the Lymm site, they will have control of all facets.

“That proved to be very stimulating. The older residents visited the nursery from time to time and it just proved really successful with the residents and the families", said Chris.

“We saw an opportunity there that when we took on our own designers to a children’s day nursery business and become an operator, we saw Lymm as the ideal site to combine all the elements and operate all of them this time.

“We’re going to be developing a really social activity programme between the home and the nursery because there is so much benefit that can be derived. Kids learning from the elderly, listening to stories and vice-versa the elderly being stimulated by the youth.

“It provides inter-generational development and really encourages young and old to interact and there are all sorts of studies as to how positive that can be for the elderly and for the young so it’s an exciting development.”

Warrington Guardian: How the former Lymm Hotel site could lookHow the former Lymm Hotel site could look

It has not been plain sailing though.

When it was announced that the renowned Lymm Hotel would be knocked down and be replaced by the build, residents were not best pleased after more than 180 people showed their dismay.

Chris continued: “It’s emotive. It’s pretty understandable to an extent. A lot of times, there is a misplaced fear about change and particularly about development, but we’ve been very, very sensitive to the local environment in terms of the design aesthetically and from a sustainability perspective.

“There has been an overwhelming demand for care accommodation and retirement housing.

“Often it’s a minority who do object to planning applications, what you don’t see is in two or three years’ time you will see a care home running at close to 100 per cent occupancy and you’ll see 45 apartments with anywhere between 45 and 90 people living there and very grateful to be living in an environment which is providing care, offering security and retirement.

“I think developers do get unjustly labelled with bad labels. People will live there happily and we’re very, very confident about that.”

Warrington Guardian: Another view of what the redevelopment could look likeAnother view of what the redevelopment could look like

And Chris has had his eyes on the site for a while and sees it as ideal for what they are building.

“It’s been a site that I’ve looked at for most of my career. In the late 90s with the company I was at we ran a planning application on it then but it’s always been a site of interest to a lot of developers over the years,” he added.

“Our involvement in more recent times came through the mutual contacts of our architects, who are also the architects for the Maconalds hotel group. They were looking at a disposal, the hotel was trading very poorly and sustainable.

“We had a couple of meetings are the rest is history so they say."

Developer New Care, part of the McGoff Group, have plans to redevelop the Springbrook site in Grappenhall with a similar idea.

“We’re committed to the area and we’re going to be a big employer. We’re a local north west business and we’re not a huge faceless corporate,” said Chris.

The former Macdonald hotel is still on course to be ready for December 2022.