Maria Miller MP opens Marnel Lodge Care Home in Basingstoke

Maria greeted residents and guests before unveiling the plaque, formally opening the new home. Everyone was treated to a champagne reception and given tours of the purpose built home, run by national care provider Barchester Healthcare. The Marnel Junior School choir also sang for residents and guests outside in the garden and got everyone clapping along to their tunes.

After the tour of the home Maria said: “With the over-65s being the fastest growing age group in Basingstoke, we have got a real challenge to provide the right facilities for older people. The reason I was keen to come along today was to support this fantastic new service. It will make an enormous difference and it is good to see that we are planning for the future and older generations.”

Marnel Lodge opened its doors to residents in February and the 62-bed care home took nine months to complete from start to finish. The home provides quality care to the local area offering residential services and dementia care in Barchester's unique Memory Lane Community. This is the first development project that Barchester has worked on with long-term design and build partners, Castleoak.

Maureen McDonagh, General Manager at Marnel Lodge, said: “We are all very excited at the prospect of opening our new home and meeting our guest of honour, Maria. We will provide high quality care for our residents as well as great scenic views over fields and allotments.”