Target date for autism centre

A SPECIALIST centre for adults with autism in Derby is set to open in October.

Derby City Council submitted its plans to turn a failed Viking tourist attraction into a day centre for adults with autism in April.

It wants to close two smaller centres for autistic adults in Mackworth and Normanton and sell them off to bring in money for the scheme. It has applied to change the use of the buildings to residential to make them easier to sell.

Councillor Ruth Skelton, cabinet member for adult services and health, said refurbishment plans are on track.

"We are hoping to open in October, or possibly November," she said.

"The visitor centre needed some work inside because it was open plan, and it needed separate places for different activities, and that work should have been finished by now.

"There was other health and safety work which needed to be done, and the pond needed to be filled in to meet safety requirements, but other than that it was a fairly new building."

The council expects to raise £340,000 from selling the two day centres, at 64 Birdcage Walk, in Mackworth, and at 89-91 Porter Road, which it says would need refurbishment and updating if kept open.

It has agreed to provide an extra £80,000 it believes is needed to turn the visitor centre into a day care centre, at a cost of about £420,000.

Ms Skelton said: "We are going for the change of use for the buildings we currently have so that we can market them with that residential use in place."

It is expected the centre will be attended by about 40 people each day, including 20 staff.

Under the plans, the people who attend the two day care centres would be transferred to a new service at the former visitor centre at the £900,000 Derventio Heritage Village, in Nottingham Road.

The attraction, with Celtic and Saxon replica buildings, closed in February 2008, six months after opening. It failed to pull in enough visitors.

The council stepped in with plans to use the main visitor centre as a day care centre.

The visitor centre cost £450,000 of Government New Deal for Communities money. The overall £900,000 cost of building the Viking village was given by the Government as part of £42m to improve the Derwent area.