Le Platon expansion a decade in the making
MORE than 10 years after work to expand Le Platon Residential Home began, it is now completed.
Delays due to the collapse of the project’s developers led to this final phase taking over two years longer than planned.
The previous section was completed in October 2020 and the goal was for the last phase – started in November 2019 – to end in February 2021.
After the previous developers stopped work, Ravenscroft Construction stepped into the breach.
‘There was a fair bit of work still to do,’ said managing director Nick Ravenscroft.
It started work in June and the rooms were opened to new residents at the end of August.
The penultimate section was mainly bedrooms but with the new build has come some changes for that area, too, with the addition of social areas.
From 25 bedrooms when the home first opened, the new expansions have taken that up to 50.
Le Platon board secretary Paul Robilliard said that the new rooms were all spoken for when they were built and were occupied in stages.
All of the hallways have locally-themed names to give the residents a sense of having an address, with Liberation Street, Nerine Lane, Renouf Way and Puffin Way among those used.
As well as bedrooms there is a new reception area, hair salon, a new kitchen, dining hall, lounge and chapel. Although when the home was founded by Edith Renouf it was based on a Christian ethos, it now takes people of all faiths as well as none.
The new chapel incorporates stained glass from the home’s previous one and is used for services once a week, taken by a live-in retired priest.
Head chef Geordie Slane has been at Le Platon since February and was pleased with the new kitchen.
‘A new kitchen – it’s a chef’s heaven,’ he said. As well as being bigger, there was more space for storage.
The lounge and dining area are divided by a folding door so a large space can be created by opening it, and this will be put to good use for the home’s first Christmas party.
Home manager Gill Kelly was delighted with the new build.
‘It’s amazing,’ she said. ‘It’s so much better for the residents and they have so much space.
‘We’re just waiting for new furniture to be delivered and it will be more homely.’
The new-look Le Platon will be officially opened early in 2024 by its patron, Sir Richard Collas.
n Architect for the new extension was Kieran Lee of DRP Architecture, while cost management was overseen by John Shepherd of WT Partnership.
