Manx Care, the organisation that runs health services on a day-to-day basis, has submitted a planning application to redevelop Radcliffe Villas, the adult learning disability respite unit.

Radcliffe Villas is located on Glencrutchery Road in Douglas, opposite police headquarters and the TT paddock area.

The proposal would see the new facility constructed on land at the rear of the existing respite unit, formerly Greenfield Garden Centre.

A phased approach involving the part demolition of unused elements of the existing facility will allow space for the new building to be constructed on the vacant plot at the rear.

Once the new, modern unit is complete, staff and service users will be moved from the old into the new.

This will then allow the existing facility to be demolished and land ‘remediated (restored environmentally) to an acceptable standard’.

A Manx Care spokesman said that the works have been made possible by the completion of the Greenacres and Spring Meadows learning disability residential community homes in 2016, which enabled the decommissioning of two residential units at Radcliffe Villas.

Radcliffe Villas was opened in 1983, and is the only facility on the island that provides overnight respite care for adults with a learning disability.

It will remain in operation until the new build, a ‘modern facility which will offer capacity for up to 12 service users, in addition to the capacity for expansion of the building being built in the layout – for any future growth in demand for services.

The project is part of Manx Care’s capital programme, aimed at improving social care residential and respite facilities, and in doing so ensuring that they are ‘fully compliant’ with the Regulation of Care Act.