Historic community moves into 21st Century housing

By the end of the 1990s, all the properties were amongst the Association’s oldest and greatly in need of redevelopment. Margaret Blackwood Housing Association has moved housing design for disabled people forward a long way in the last 30 years. As with the community at large, the aspirations of disabled people have grown and their horizons widened. The housing at new Cala Sona reflects this.

Specially designed in consultation with the tenants and to meet the current and future needs of disabled people, the new housing consists of 24 two-bedroom flats in all, grouped in three blocks of four, one block of two, and a block of ten with a modern take on a communal close providing a heart to the building.

Innovative thinking is evident throughout the development.

All the flats have either a patio or a balcony and the different housing blocks have been arranged to foster the real sense of community that exists at Cala Sona. The sloping nature of the site, which has a beautiful location overlooking the Clyde valley, has been skilfully used to provide ground-floor access to 14 of the 24 properties although 17 are fully wheelchair accessible.

Within the 10-in-a-block unit, all the flats are fitted with fire sprinkler systems. Not only is this a valuable safety feature but it has allowed Margaret Blackwood Housing Association to fit doors without the heavy automatic door closers that make life so difficult for disabled people.

With 70% of the properties being wheelchair accessible, careful thought has gone into providing doors that are wide enough for powered chairs and hallways wide enough to let chairs turn. Kitchens have been installed with kneespaces under worktops that can be fitted to the best height for the tenant. There are mobile storage units, special hobs, and ovens with side-opening doors so that wheelchair-using cooks can safely reach the shelves. Many of the bathrooms have been fitted with wet-floor bathrooms with level-access showers and, in some instances, there are second bathrooms for family members or carers.

To future-proof the flats, all taps have lever handles. Bathroom walls have been strengthened so that grab rails can easily be fitted if needed. There are knock-out panels between bedrooms and bathrooms to allow en-suite doors to be fitted along with a hoist track to help carry tenants between their bed and the shower or toilet. In the first floor flats, the stairways have been designed to be wide enough to take a chairlift.

Sustainability and low running costs have also been high on the agenda.

Where possible, timber comes from sustainable sources and has Forestry Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification. There has been an emphasis on local materials and products and using materials that consume low levels of energy in their production. Some of the materials – such as the Warmcel insulation – are recycled and most can be recycled again.

All the new houses at Cala Sona have very high SAP ratings, meaning they are very energy efficient, requiring less energy to heat, saving the tenants money on gas and electricity. Lighting in the communal close within the 10-in-a-block unit is low energy and comes on automatically when it gets dark. The close is fully glazed front and back to maximise natural light and the flats in the block all have glazed balconies that act as sunspaces warmed by the sun and which cushion the living rooms from external temperatures.

External wall cladding, guttering, high-level glazing, windows, doors and even internal flooring have been designed with the minimum of maintenance in mind.

Margaret Blackwood Housing Association’s chief executive, Peter Mountford-Smith, told us, “The redevelopment of Cala Sona Court is a flagship project for us and is the first in an ambitious programme we have to replace our older sheltered housing developments. Indeed, we will be starting on Phase Two of Cala Sona within the next few days which will provide another 24 affordable flats for Netherton.

“This first phase would not have been the success it is without the wholehearted support, participation and understanding of our tenants and we are really grateful to them.”

Notes for the Editor

The £3.1million funding for the redevelopment of Cala Sona Court’s first phase consists of £2.15million in Housing Association Grant from Communities Scotland, now the Scottish Government’s Housing and Regeneration Directorate, and £0.95million self-funded by Margaret Blackwood Housing Association.

The Association is Scotland’s leading provider of innovative barrier-free houses to meet the lifetime needs of their tenants within inclusive communities. It has nearly 1,600 properties across mainland Scotland.

The Association is also a major provider of support, with services ranging from housing support packages designed to help people maintain their tenancies through to intensive, tailored personal support delivered on a 24-hour, 365 day basis.

The history of Cala Sona

After being one of the first people into the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, British Red Cross Society worker Muriel Gofton, then in her early thirties, spent the next few years in Germany as a Displaced Persons Welfare Officer working with internees from Eastern European countries such as Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

A huge international effort saw many thousands of refugees offered new homes in new countries, with large numbers emigrating to Canada, the USA and Australia. Sadly, many families were turned down. With medical histories that included typhus, typhoid and, especially, tuberculosis, they failed to meet the stringent health requirements specified for immigration. These people became Europe’s unwanted – stigmatised, stateless and left to languish in refugee camps.

Miss Gofton was appalled by their plight and decided to do something about it herself. Years of persistent letter writing and badgering governments across Europe yielded little success. Then she discovered that, following the brutal crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, Hungarian refugees had been brought to the UK without any medical qualification whatsoever. She used this knowledge as a lever and finally obtained permission from the Department of Health for Scotland to bring in ten families, but only after providing a personal guarantee that they would be self-supporting and not become a charge on the State.

With the help of donations from sympathetic individuals and grants from charities, Miss Gofton purchased a mansion house and lodge in spacious grounds at Netherton, near Wishaw and set about organising a residential enterprise. She chose to call it Cala Sona – Gaelic for Happy Haven. The mansion house and lodge were converted into flats and two prefabricated bungalows were built. By the end of October 1959, the buildings were finished, furnished and ready for occupation and the first families moved in. Four more bungalows were completed by the end of 1960 and the community grew to 36 people altogether.

Whilst some of the men found employment outside of Cala Sona, the rest of the community set up a number of money-spinning projects within the grounds; a market garden with two greenhouses for tomatoes and bedding plants; a cobblers shop started by a man who learned his trade in the camps repairing shoes using straw; a hen run producing eggs; a stamp sorting enterprise; dressmaking and embroidery. Within Netherton itself, a haberdashery shop was opened, followed in 1963 by a highly regarded fish and chip shop next door.

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