Blantyre Care Hub, South Lanarkshire

‘Housing to 2040’ is the Scottish Government’s vision to deliver safe, good quality and affordable housing as part of efforts to tackle homelessness and improve the residential living experience across the country’s private and social rented sectors. Encompassed in the strategy is a new ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by 2031/32.

In-line with the strategy, South Lanarkshire Council has invested over £50m in recent years towards building new, affordable homes for communities in their unitary authority area. Their ‘Local Housing Strategy 2022-2027’ details priorities in relation to the supply of affordable housing and the improvement of housing quality and energy efficiency, as well the support of independent living and sustainability. 

urbanspec has worked with South Lanarkshire Council and their architectural partners on new developments in recent years, with our proven engineering design and consistent delivery central to this partnership. Working in collaboration with Cruden Building, the contracting division of Cruden Group, urbanspec provided the manufacturing, delivering and installation of 5no. H-Series Bin Store Buildings for a new award winning development in South Lanarkshire.

The Blantyre Care Hub is supported by Scottish Government funding and situated on the site of the former St Joseph’s School. Providing 45 homes as a combination of terraced properties and apartments, the focal point is a transitional, 20-bedded community care facility. The site has been created to enable residential patients to return to their own home supporting independent living as an alternative to long-term care. 20 new technology-enabled properties with state-of-the-art telecare systems have been designed in partnership with Glasgow Science Centre.

Enabling a specifically designed and well-managed modular bin storage system, each H-Series Bin Store Building provides secure containment for 8no. 1280L 4-wheeled bins, installed in close proximity to surrounding buildings to enable ease of access for residents and council bin crews. urbanspec’s integrated design and engineering methodology accommodated fire-resistant wall and roof panel specifications into the design of the units, reducing fire risk where bin store buildings are installed within the 6-metre recommended distance due to site constraints.

Construction of the Blantyre Care Hub was completed in March 2023, with a further 25 new council homes on the same site creating new social housing at the centre of Blantyre. The effective management and disposal of waste is ultimately vital for the community to operate efficiently moving forward. The new H-Series communal bin stores provided by urbanspec enable a uniform system for the storage of residential waste across the development, reducing waste disposal costs and unnecessary ongoing maintenance requirements, with these qualities in-line with the housing efficiency and sustainability principles of the South Lanarkshire Council’s ‘Local Housing Strategy 2022-2027’.