Council and democracy

Employment and Support Service to move to central location

Chatsworth Hall, in Chatsworth Road, is to be refurbished to provide a new training centre and a proposed drop-in facility for adults with learning disabilities.

At present, the service is located in an old industrial building on the Purley Way. Due to the bad state of repair of this building, the inflexibility of the site and its poor public transport links, it was agreed that a new site should be found.

Chatsworth Hall, vacant since April 2007, has been identified as a more convenient location for the service as it has better transport links. It was formerly the Unison social club, so will require extensive internal building works to make it fully accessible and bring it up to current building regulations. 

A total of £370,000 is required to fund essential works, which is made up from a confirmed capital allocation for 2008-09 of £345,000 and a £25,000 contribution from the council's Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) fund.

Refurbishment will include raising the ground floor and adapting door widths to make the building more accessible and the introduction of lifts and ramps.

Croydon's cabinet member for health and adult social care, Councillor Margaret Mead, said: "The benefits of relocating this service to a central location are many. Better public transport facilities will make it easier for users to reach the centre and providing a more accessible building will enable people with disabilities to get involved in more mainstream activities.

"The central location will also help attract employers to the service. By moving the service to Chatsworth Hall we will give people with disabilities a better facility as well as providing value for money."

Current users of the service and their carers have been consulted about the move. All staff involved in the service, including those working for partners of the council, have also been fully consulted.

The possibility of providing a shared space that can be rented out for community evening and weekend use to generate income is also being explored.