Welcome to our second blog on our work in the Somerton community!
This month, we held our second resident steering group meeting. We trialled a hybrid approach, with some attending in person at Somerton Primary School, and some joining the meeting online from their home.
You can see the minutes from the December meeting here: https://www.newportcityhomes.com/media/2395/final-somerton-rsg-minutes-011221.docx
15 Somerton residents attended our December steering group, alongside local Councillors Debbie Harvey and Ray Truman.
Survey work on Somerton homes
We talked about the survey work in Somerton that has been carried out by our contractor, Michael Dyson. These surveys have now finished, and we’re working through all of the information we have received.
The surveys focused on identifying where homes may have rising damp, condensation which could be causing mould and penetrating damp, as well as cracking issues.
The steering group and the wider community are keen to see the survey data, and we’ll be sharing individual information with every home who received a survey. We’ll be writing out to all homes who had a survey with this info towards the end of January 2022.
We’ll also share more general information with the steering group when we have it, and we’re looking at how we can share this with the wider community too.
Financial advisor
We have been working with a small group of homeowners to recruit a financial advisor, who can support our work in Somerton and provide advice and support for homeowners too. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet been able to find a provider who can do exactly what we have asked for, but we’re looking at other options and the resident group will continue to be involved in this work.
Voluntary purchase scheme
This week, we have sent a letter to all homes advising that we are now able to consider purchasing homes from homeowners who would like to sell to us. This is a completely optional scheme, and if you would like to have a discussion with us about this, please do get in touch.
You can see the letter here: https://www.newportcityhomes.com/media/2394/somerton-dec-update-letter-v1.docx
Project plan and timescales
In our recent letter we have also shared our project plan and some possible timescales for the community which indicate how our work in Somerton is likely to progress.
You can see the project plan here: https://www.newportcityhomes.com/media/2393/somerton-project-plan.xlsx
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2022 |
This year will focus on working with the local community, making sure we have the right information to make key decisions and the design and planning process. We will be working towards submitting a planning application at the end of the year, We may also look at a pilot refurbishment project to consider the practicalities of the works needed |
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2023 |
The planning process is currently taking around 9 months and if successful we would then need to start the process of selecting the contractor. We expect that residents will be part of this process. We may start rehousing residents at this time in preparation for works to start and will give affected residents plenty of notice and support at this time |
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2024 |
This is when works may start, including both refurbishment and regeneration. The exact number of phases and timescales is to be considered in the work we will carry out in 2022. |
Our next steering group meeting will take place on 12 January 2022.
We hope that this blog has been useful – if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you’d like us to cover in future blogs, get in touch with us at community@newportcityhomes.com.
Thanks,
The Somerton team