WATCH: The first look at the proposed new location for Peterborough's new Dementia Centre

Hopes are high for a new era of dementia care in Peterborough with the announcement of a potential new location for the city’s Dementia Resource Centre.

The centre, which is currently located on York Road, in the Millfield area of the city, is all set to relocate to the Paston Farm Community Centre. Its current building is being sold as the council looks to trim down its property portfolio.

The Dementia Resource Centre has faced an uncertain future with the service granted a stay of execution while a new buyer for the Your Road building was found after a sale fell through at the beginning of the year.

With a potential new location found, however, the final process of securing the centre for the proposed use are well underway and there are hopes that it could be up and running by the end of the year.

The announcement of the new location has been largely welcomed by staff and service users certainly as a preferred option to partitioning Bretton Library, which was originally the solution proposed by the council.

These plans have now been paused and the future looks bright for the Dementia Resource Centre.

A section of the Paston Farm Community Centre is currently being used by the Peterborough Police Amateur Boxing Club, which helps children in the city learn to box as well as teaching a number of important life skills such as self respect, respect for others, self discipline and ensuring a healthy lifestyle.

Another part of the building is used by the Baa Baa Bistro, a community cafe open on Mondays and Thursdays between 9:30am and 2:30pm.

The plan is for the dementia centre to use the building by day and the boxing club, in their separate gym facility, in the evenings.

The building would give the dementia centre access to social space, an outside courtyard, a separate outbuilding for consultations and office space for the Alzheimer's Society staff and volunteers as well as suitable rooms for activities such as Singing for Brain and Peer to Peer support groups.

Much of the building’s interior, besides the cafe, is currently is a state of disrepair but the council hopes that once work begins, it would take between two and three months to get it up to the required standard.

Cllr Dr Shabina Asad Qayyum, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, said: “It is wonderful that we can continue to provide a service for this very vulnerable group of residents in our city.

"It is an example all about how our council administration is putting services where they matter. We hope too to make the wider communities see that Peterborough really is offering services in the way of people who have dementia to ensure that they are looked after.

"This really is an example of good practice to other council and authorities all over the country. I am incredibly pleased with the variety of rooms that are here and the offering it has. I really hope that this comes to fruition and I am very optimistic with what we have seen.

“This is unique to Peterborough. This has been a journey but we have to look forward with positivity and the fact that this has a community element to it. There are ideas evolving all of the time about how these communities can come together and grow.”

Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes added: “It has been really brilliant to get a chance to come and see the community centre and understand how this place can be used to become a real community hub and asset.

“One of the unique features of Peterborough is that we have this dementia resource centre and it’s brilliant to see that the council has not forced through a change that users weren’t happy with but taking a step back, listening to people and really working together.

“This can be a real benefit for Peterborough and a sign that when the council works together with communities we can get something that is a win-win for everyone involved.”