Following a competitive capital bid process, Public Health South Tees have secured £800,000 of capital funding to redevelop the 5th and 6th floor of Dundas House. This marks an exciting new phase of the award winning live well centre development, prompting new opportunities to expand the existing offer of preventative support at the heart of Middlesbrough’s town centre. The development comes at the cusp of improved working between key services such as employment and health.
Vanessa Kelly, from Groundwork North East and Cumbria, said: “The Live Well Centre is a successful example of effective partnership working for the benefit of local residents most in need” and it is with this in mind that the expansion phase will focus on building further integration between health and services that enable and empower people to lead healthier and happier lives, including employment, education, housing, welfare and social connectedness.
Lisa Jones from the Public Health team noted that “The most unexpected benefit from the live well centre so far has been the unearthing of some fantastic local services that make a massive contribution to the health of the local population without any local authority or NHS funding.
“We need to start learning from these providers and reciprocate that learning by creating a collaborative environment for these services to enable them to grow diversify and integrate better with the wider system.”
Richard Wilson, Senior Associate Partner at Middlesbrough-based Dodds Brown, secured the new lease on behalf of Dundas House and Shopping Centre landlord Contract Experts Limited. He says: “This is an important letting for both Middlesbrough Council and Dundas House and Shopping Centre. New users of the centre will further boost the weekly footfall in the shopping centre which already exceeds 70,000 per week, as well as attracting other wellbeing related organisations to take space in Dundas House and see more people based in The Live Well Centre using the shops and market units in Dundas Shopping Centre.
Proposed plans include a meditation suite and floor dedicated to support social regeneration projects within the town. The refurbishment work will start this spring and is expected to be completed by summer 2019.
