With views across the Erewash Canal, and the magnificent grade 2* listed Bennerley Viaduct, Bennerley Fields is part of a new Integrated masterplan scheme for Derbyshire County Council. The project split over two phases, Bennerley Fields Residential Care Centre is only the first phase of a wider masterplan that gained full planning approval in 2020. With Phase 1 delivering a Specialist Residential Care centre, community facilities and inclusive amenities, together with a new upgraded Sports Pitch.
The scheme consists of a 40-bed specialist care wing and 65 extra-care apartments, both with supporting accommodation, located around an internal courtyard and generous gardens. The size of the site provides the opportunity to integrate additional facilities to create a vibrant hub for the community, including a health & well-being suite, café and hairdressers which serve residents and the local population.In addition to the main development are 18 bungalows along Bennerley Avenue, recreating the street frontage where the school once stood. The scheme also involves the repositioning of an existing football pitch in line with Sports England requirements to provide the local area with an improved sporting facility.
Breathing new life into the vacant site, where the Ormiston Academy School once stood, the second phase of the masterplan will see the addition of 66 extracare apartments and 18 supported living bungalows. The Extra Care apartments are aesthetically similar to the Care Centre and Main entrance, using similar materiality and feature brickwork but with simple detailing and proportions to suit its three-storey massing. The buildings are coherent in design but still retain separate identities, the glazed link between the main entrance and extra care building provides a visual break to separate the massing and to also assist with wayfinding. The bungalows continue the design queues and materiality to unify the development as whole.
