Victory for residents at Monica and Astley Court!
Following an intense and vocal local campaign, Salford Labour are pleased to announce that ForHousing have scrapped their plans to decommission two Extra Care facilities at Monica Court and Astley Court.
Following an announcement last month, the two homes - which cater overwhelmingly for frail, elderly and psychologically vulnerable residents - were set to be decommissioned by housing provider ForHousing. Local Labour councillors from Irlam, Cadishead, and Eccles - alongside the City Mayor - responded firmly to these proposals, launching a public campaign, and publishing several public letters condemning the potential loss of services.
After a meeting on 20/06/22 between the city mayor, lead member and executive support for adult services, council officers, our MPs, and the ForHousing executive team, ForHousing have agreed to reverse their decision to stop new lettings and to stop the decommissioning process.
Cadishead & Lower Irlam ward councillor and Executive Support Member for Social Care & Mental Health, Hannah Robinson Smith said of the meeting,
"ForHousing were profusely apologetic for the distress caused to residents, their families, and the wider community and they have agreed to rip up their plans, and come back to the drawing board in a true and proper partnership to ensure that we are never in this position again.
"Moving forward we need to ensure that residents are supported to live where they wish to, surrounded by a community they love, and supported how they need to be."
Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett has said,
“We commend ForHousing Salford for reviewing their proposals and working with us to provide a resolution which provides a future for these two invaluable extra care housing schemes,
“We will continue to work closely with ForHousing to to make wider housing plans that provide the right quality housing to service our local areas. Our registered housing providers play an absolutely critical role in providing affordable homes for local people”.
We thank everybody for all of their support! The residents are extremely happy with the outcome and are overwhelmed how our community came together for them.