First residents move into Pendine Park's luxury £3m care complex

Pioneering companion living complex in North Wales is the first of its kind in the UK.

The first residents have moved into a pioneering £3 million luxury care complex that's creating 30 new jobs in Gwynedd.

There has been a "phenomenal amount of interest" in the 16 companion living apartments in Caernarfon which are aimed at people from North West Wales.

The Parc Bryn Seiont scheme is the first of its kind in the UK and is designed primarily to allow couples to stay together when one or both of them needs social care support as well as for individuals looking for a luxury apartment with care.

It is next door to the bilingual Bryn Seiont Newydd dementia centre of excellence on Pant Road and the people living in the colour coordinated apartments have access to the medical care and support provided by the staff on site.

Once all the apartments are occupied, it will take the total number of people employed on the site to 140 and Pendine Park's investment there to £10 million.

Pendine Park proprietor Mario Kreft MBE said: "Parc Bryn Seiont is a totally new concept in social care that's aimed both at keeping couples together or reuniting them if their health needs have meant them being split up.

"They could be married couples or equally they could be sisters or brothers or even close friends.

"The residents can choose between stylish one or two bedroom apartments with a private kitchen, dining area and lounge with luxury, en-suite bedrooms.

"It means they can enjoy the best of both worlds, their own apartment with the advantage of 24-hour care and neighbourly living, whether entertaining family or friends, or socialising in the communal lounges and safe outdoor spaces.

"Residents can also enrich their lives by choosing to take part in group recreation, including art, music, social events, reminiscence, exercise and hair and beauty.

"The idea was the result of a number of conversations I had with my wife Gill which was about the sort of care and support we might require and not wanting to be separated if one of us became ill.

"It occurred to us that there must be many couples who feel exactly the same way but we are not aware there is anything like this anywhere else in the UK."

The importance of enabling elderly couples to stay together was recently underlined by Britain's most senior family judge who said that separating them in care homes was inhumane because "people die of a broken heart".

Sir James Munby, head of the family court, said that "uprooting" older people could cause them to decline more quickly and that the practice of splitting up elderly couples was "shocking".