A MUCH-loved Oxford hospice has announced a key milestone for its expansion plans.

Building works are due to commence at Sobell House Hospice in Headington on October 12, and will be marked with a ‘breaking the ground’ ceremony.

It has also now informed Oxford City Council where ecological features including a bug hotel and bat tubes will be placed around the new buildings, which will extend the hospice’s current base on the Churchill Hospital site.

The extension plans, which were approved by the council earlier this year, respond to increasing pressures caused by Oxfordshire’s ageing population.

They include a dementia-friendly garden annex designed to suit people who may be frail and confused, and a new clinic for outpatients.

Sobell has also submitted fresh details to the council about the scheme’s biodiversity, to meet planning conditions.

Documents lodged on the council’s website said: “The biodiversity enhancement measures referred to in the condition include the provision of five house sparrow boxes, five swift boxes, three bat tubes, a bug hotel and the incorporation of nectar-rich planting.”

Architects for Sobell then set out where the habitats will be placed on the new extension, and which plants have been chosen to plant in the flower beds.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/sobellhouse_appeal/14742420.Striking_vision_to_transform_Sobell_to_help_cope_with_ticking_timebomb/