JERSEY’S only hotel specifically designed for people with disabilities is set to receive an extra £500,000 from a government-administered fund to finish its redevelopment.
Maison des Landes, in St Ouen, will be granted the additional funds from the Harold Ernest Le Seelleur Fund to deal with ‘inflationary pressures in ancillary building costs’.
This is in addition to a grant of £1 million from the same fund in 2021 for ‘the development of a respite holiday centre for the elderly, vulnerable and disabled’.
The report accompanying the decision states that the extra funding is ‘deemed required as a direct result of significant inflationary pressures in ancillary building costs and increases to other planned expenditure of circa £1.5m’.
Maison des Landes Hotel is run by a charitable trust set up by the Lions Club of Jersey, and has been providing breaks for guests with disabilities since the 1960s.
The hotel closed its doors during Covid but re-opened with a new ‘vision’ for what the ‘state-of-the-art hotel’ could be, said the trustees’ chairman and Lion Peter Tabb.
The initial 2021 planning proposals were brought forward following consultation with local organisations such as Dementia Jersey to consider ‘all aspects of disability and not just those confined to wheelchairs’. Proposed upgrades included the creation of a ‘more welcoming and accessible’ reception area, a multi-use games area and an inclusive sensory stimulating garden.
Work started in January 2022 on the £3.8m redevelopment, and the hotel is due to reopen this summer.
If approved, this additional funding would be used for the completion of the development, as well as providing a tailored venue for use by Jersey charities working with the disabled and creating a modern hydrotherapy centre.
A condition of the extra funds is the erection of a plaque in the dining area thanking the late HE Le Seelleur for his bequest to the Island for the benefit of its ‘aged, infirm and needy residents’.
