Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK, Badenoch & Strathspey Community Hospital for the initiative Community Therapy Garden project

Helping patients through their journey of recovery, Balfour Beatty have brought to life a new therapy garden for the rehabilitation of people with medical and mental health issues at the new NHS Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital. Championing the work of the Badenoch and Strathspey Garden Therapy Group as part of a project to build the new hospital in the Scottish Highlands, Balfour Beatty created the therapeutic green space to support the wellbeing of staff, patients, visitors and the local community.

Balfour Beatty first met the charity garden group during a pre-construction community information event where the idea of a therapy garden at the new hospital began to take shape.

In collaboration with the charity’s committee management team, the local community and design partners Oberlanders and Wardell Armstrong, Balfour Beatty began the process of designing the new garden. The design had to take into consideration all community members including those needing wheelchair access. The final approved plan consisted of a greenhouse, storage shed, eight raised planting beds set at different heights, compost bins and a water butt.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing design meetings online and issues sourcing materials, the therapy garden was successfully delivered on time alongside the completion of the community hospital in September 2021. This has allowed for the community group to access the garden space and fully develop the new therapy garden space during 2022.

Mary Stewart, Trustee of Badenoch and Strathspey Therapy Garden comments “We are delighted with the new Badenoch and Strathspey Therapy Garden. The hard underfoot surface makes it easily accessible for all those who attend our sessions, and the raised beds which were constructed and filled with earth ready for us to plant are great. We have had many positive comments already and very grateful for the contact and contribution Balfour Beatty have made to the planning and completing of our new Therapy Garden, which will be such a benefit to our charity and the local community.’’

There is no doubt the therapy garden will have a long legacy for community users in and around Aviemore and will continue to create positive change and provide significant health benefits.

Balfour Beatty have since applied a similar approach to ongoing community improvement projects connected to large scale infrastructure and are using best practice approaches from the Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital project as inspiration for its approach.

Category

Community

Sub Category

Community-engagement

Banding