A newly opened retirement village will help reduce pressure on health services and housing, while also providing a café for the wider community.

Lever Gardens Court was officially opened off Dearden Street in Little Lever at a ceremony attended by town hall officials and developers last week.

Now Bolton Council has heard that town hall leader hope it will benefit not just older people living there but also the people across the rest of Little Lever.

Cllr Liam Barnard, of Little Lever and Darcy Lever, said: “It’s an absolute fantastic place in my ward now and in the borough.

“We spoke to many of the new residents there making it their home and I know myself and hopefully everybody else does who attended agree that everybody who lives there finds in fantastic.

The complex is made up of housing for older peopleThe complex is made up of housing for older people (Image: Public)

“However, as well as providing specially adapted homes for older people the development will also become an important part of the wider Little Lever community with a café that is now open to the wider public.”

The £12.5M scheme includes more than 60 new homes for people over the age of 55 with fitted kitchens, bathrooms and living areas.

It was commissioned by the council and is being managed by housing provider Bolton at Home.

Addressing a full meeting of Bolton Council, Cllr Barnard said he wanted to congratulate everyone involved in making the scheme a reality.

He also asked how else it would benefit people living across the wider Little Lever area.

In response council cabinet member for adults, health and wellbeing Cllr Sean Fielding said that Lever Gardens would prove to be a “top notch” facility having visited the opening event.

He said: “That wasn’t the first time I had been, I went before any of the residents had moved in.

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“But what was clear the second time was that sense of community that had built up in that short time since people had moved in.”

Cllr Fielding said that as well as providing a public bistro café the development would help reduce pressures on housing and on health services.

He said: “So those benefits are not just for the residents that we were lucky enough to meet on that day but for the wider community too.

“Because reduced pressure on local health services benefits all those who are registered with them and frees up under occupied houses in the wider community