Renaissance Care secures future of Aberdeen care home with six-figure investment
Renaissance Care has just announced plans for a six-figure investment to upgrade its Category B listed Persley Castle care home in Aberdeen.
Residents of this cherished local care home and their families will see their home in a new light after plans to install new windows at the property were approved by Aberdeen City Council’s Planning Development Management Committee today (Thursday).
This move will help modernise one of Aberdeen’s most picturesque riverside care homes with the installation of four new bedroom windows to meet recent requirements of the Care Inspectorate, plus several other improvements, thus securing the future of the 18th century property as a care home for many years to come.
The fortress-like building, formerly operated as boarding space for apprentices at the Woodside Cotton Works, is one of five care homes operated by the company in the city, alongside Cowdray Club, Jesmond, Torry and Riverside.
Renaissance Care’s founder and chairman, Scottish entrepreneur and care home veteran Robert Kilgour, hailed the decision as a victory for the local community, securing a long term future for the home’s vulnerable elderly residents and their families as well as securing the future of 50 local jobs.
Mr Kilgour said: “With planning consent now in place, we can now move swiftly to provide all these much-needed improvements, which will enhance the quality of the home’s facilities for all its residents and for its amazingly hard-working and dedicated staff.
“Persley Castle is not only a cherished local care facility but it is home to up to 40 elderly residents and these new plans will preserve the unique legacy and character of this special building while brightening and enhancing the overall living experience for the people we live to support.”
The small slit-style windows to be replaced were originally decorative defensive openings which are not suited to providing the rooms they frame with the appropriate level of lighting and visual amenity.
The plans will see two windows at the front and two at the side of the property enlarged, increasing the flow of light into the bedrooms. The changes take their design from other windows on the façade and the existing stonework will be sensitively managed, altered and tooled using the granite stones on the existing building.
Works will be carried out by a qualified stonemason experienced in dealing with Listed Building projects and all stone will be re-used wherever possible and re-pointed in a lime mortar to match the existing window style while excess stone will be re-used within the gardens of the property.
