THE Forest District Council is searching Britain and Europe for a specialist developer of 'extra care' housing for a project in Coleford.

It has published notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) to start the search for a provider who can offer architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services.

The search is part of the "competitive dialogue" procurement process which will take around seven months to complete but will extend the search into Europe to find a developer that has a successful track record of building this type of specialist housing.

The new housing development is aimed at older people and will include between 40-60 units with at least 40 per cent affordable housing at the council owned Bank Street site in Coleford.

The site covers an area formerly occupied by a

library and community /youth centre and is currently used as a car park. The council is keen to incorporate an element of off-street public car parking as part of the redevelopment.

The new homes are likely to include a mix of one and two bedroom accommodation, including several bungalows or houses, offering mixed tenures of affordable rented housing, shared ownership/equity housing and open market sale units. The Bank Street scheme will be linked to a specialist Extra Care management organisation which will cater for the long-term stewardship of the development.

Council leader Cllr Patrick Molyneux said: "This is a new competitive tendering approach for the council. By the end of the summer we hope to have identified a suitable developer who has all the skills and experience we need to create a new, high quality Extra Care housing scheme for Coleford."

All details about the OJEU notice are published on the Council's web pages http://www.fdean.gov.uk/go/businessopps">www.fdean.gov.uk/go/businessopps