THE St Monica Trust has officially opened Millstream, a new 44-apartment development offering independent living for older people at the Chocolate Quarter in Keynsham.
It completes the Bristol-based charity’s £60 million redevelopment of the former Cadbury’s factory into a retirement village.
The new development offers a mix of one and two-beds, with 18 apartments being ‘affordable’ housing units for residents nominated by Bath and North East Somerset Council.
It also features a landscaped community garden between Millstream and the Somerdale Pavilion, plus a new entrance to the Pavilion car park off Trajectus Way.
The opening was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Millstream residents and representatives of the St Monica Trust, Bath & North East Somerset Council, RED Construction, RLB, KWL Architects and EP Studios.
Chief executive of the St Monica Trust, David Williams, said: “The opening of Millstream not only marks the completion of the trust’s redevelopment of the former Cadbury’s factory, but it also fulfils our original commitment to provide social housing for the local community, as we do at all of the trust’s other retirement villages.”
The ribbon was cut by project manager Dave Winslow, who has been involved in the building of all the St Monica Trust’s retirement villages since Westbury Fields in 2004. Millstream is his last project with the trust before his retirement.
He said: “It was a really nice surprise when David Williams handed me the scissors and asked me to cut the ribbon.
“I felt very honoured and it was great way to call time on my career both with the St Monica Trust and within the wider construction industry.”
Keynsham retirement village project completed
