New lease of life for Blackburn Mayor’s old home as plans for health hub move forward

Proposals to restore and extend Blackburn’s historic Griffin Lodge as a health and wellbeing centre for local people have been submitted to planners.The idea of carefully restoring and expanding the Grade II-listed building, which was once the home of the Mayor of Blackburn, was first proposed by Witton, Limefield and Redlam medical centres in 2017, and has finally been submitted for formal planning permission.Currently, the practices are all based in former houses which weren’t built for clinical care or services. As a result, the practices desperately need new premises which are fit for the purpose of clinical care.In their current buildings, the environment for patients is poor – access for people with disabilities is difficult and the layout is seen as unhelpful and confusing. The buildings are limiting the health and care services the practices can deliver, and the staff they can recruit.After positive feedback on the proposals from patients and local people in events with the practices several years ago, the practices have teamed up with Warrington-based primary care premises specialist, Assura, to work to turn their plans and people’s suggestions into reality.The new hub at Griffin Lodge would allow the practices to offer extended services away from hospital, bringing those services closer to people’s homes and workplaces. These would include minor operations, a much wider range of clinics and support including social prescribing, physiotherapy, mental health services for young people, COPD and pulmonary rehabilitation and many other wellbeing services on site.It will create space for training of student nurses, doctors and nurse practitioners and will be a local health education space. Given Griffin Lodge’s location, there will also be fantastic links with the surrounding outside space.One of the most exciting things about the project is the opportunity to reuse an historic building for vital community services rather than constructing something brand new – which is also an important part of tackling climate change. Historic England research has found that carefully recycling historic buildings can produce far less carbon than the process of demolishing and constructing new sites.Patients do not need to take any action and would begin using the new site when it opens as a health hub – subject to planning and construction timescales – in 2024.