Housing association City West have submitted plans for a five-storey block of flats in Eccles town centre.
The building, on a demolished garage site on Fox Street, behind Church Street, will be linked by a first-floor footbridge to the neighbouring 12-storey College Croft tower block.
Plans include 20 one-bed and four two-bed apartments with a 2,000sq ft restaurant and bistro on the ground floor.
Both residents of the new block and at College Croft would be able to use the restaurant.
It would mean new landscaping for a particularly unattractive overflow car park in the middle of the town.
This would be the latest ‘extra care’ development planned by City West after their moves to secure the new 56-bed Bourke Gardens (formerly Ninian Gardens) in Little Hulton.
It’ll need two new full-time and two part-time staff to manage, if it gets planning approval, say the housing association.
Half of the site is currently being used as a construction compound for the ongoing works at College Croft.
The other half of the site is a temporary car park for the residents of College Croft, during the completion of a permanent car park to the east of the high-rise block.
It would however obscure the view of St Mary’s Church from the nearby Eccles Metrolink station.
The 84-flat, 12-storey College Croft tower block in Eccles town centre has been a feature of the local skyline since the 1960s.
It’s now managed by City West Housing Trust as a sheltered/retirement block.
Extra care housing is becoming more common, typically as self-contained flats or with design features that support elderly or disabled people to live more independently.
Occupants may be owners, part owners or tenants and all have legal rights to occupy underpinned by housing law (in contrast to residents in care homes).
Since City West Housing Trust joined the ForViva group of social landlords in June 2015. They promise to deliver an investment of £140 million to build 1,500 homes in the North West by 2018.
