Guide Dogs Redbridge Site Redevelopment Proposals

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, known by the working name Guide Dogs, is a charitable organisation founded in 1934. Guide Dogs helps blind and partially sighted people across the UK through the provision of guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services.

Guide Dogs has recently moved to structure itself around regional delivery with each UK region having its own management structure and Regional Centre. The multi-regional structure provides a base for the Guide Dogs goal of providing 7000 specifically trained guide dogs and supporting 23,000 blind and partially sighted people by 2023. It is envisaged that their existing site at Woodford Bridge will be a cornerstone and new Regional Centre in Guide Dogs operations to support service provision in the south east of England.

The new structure means that the puppies are breed at the Guide Dogs National Breeding Centre near Leamington Spa and then spend their first full year in the home with volunteers in the community UK wide. When the dogs are one year old, they begin a period of intense training. This training is undertaken at the Regional Centres (in this case the proposed new Regional Centre in Woodford Bridge) during office hours with the dogs returning to their homes in the community each evening and at weekends.

This change in structure and goals will have a significant impact on the way Guide Dogs operate the site at Woodford Bridge. Traditionally, the dogs stayed on the site 24 hours, 7 days per week during the period of intensive training. The dogs will now live with volunteers known as fosterers in the local community and will be dropped off at the Regional Centre Monday to Friday during the day for training. Consequently, the proposed new Regional Centre will operate during office hours, with the dogs being dropped off between 7am-9am and collected between 5pm-7pm. Dog training will be undertaken between 9am-5pm. The site will be open from 7am-7pm Monday to Friday to allow staff and the ground maintenance team to prepare the site before and after the dogs arrive for the day. The site will only be used at the weekend for the occasional open day, which occur once annually.