Hello!
Welcome to our June blog update about our work in Somerton
Our last Resident Steering Group meeting was on 1 June at Nexus House, with a combination of people attending in person and online. 8 residents attended, and Terry and Andrew from Oxford Architects attended too, to talk through the design activity we’re working on.
Read the minutes of the meeting here.
Project Plan
We have hit our key milestones and floor surveys in 2 void properties have been completed. We will be continuing to look at further design options for Somerton
Valuer
Jones Battye are making good progress on valuations and 5 offers have been accepted by homeowners. They will be working through the rest of the valuations over the coming weeks.
Refurbishment activity
The surveys to the 10 properties have been completed, we have received a draft report. Curtins are waiting on roof calculations and the final report will be then be issued. Once we have this information and spoken to our internal maintenance and capital works teams a specification will be put together which will e carried out on 2 void properties. The refurbishment works in both properties will be almost identical they will differ slightly due to the layout of the properties.
Design Update
Andrew showed a masterplan approach for Somerton, with the 3 out lining regeneration areas, being Acacia Avenue, Hawthorne Avenue and the corner of Sycamore and Hawthorne Avenue. We are still exploring other options for the other areas in Somerton. To get to a design stage a lot of work goes into looking at the constraints and potential of each site, surveys are carried out on the levels of the site, existing drainage, underground electrical services are checked.
We discussed that we need to look at Somerton as a masterplan as we need to ensure we are looking at the site as a whole and not in silo of each other, We need to provide community / placemaking space, sustainable urban drainage facilities, the correct mix of homes across the estate.
We have been looking at the refurbishment scheme and our current thinking is that the top of Hawthorne Avenue, Hawthorne Square and palm Square will be within the refurbishment programme.
Linden Road and Somerton Road are likely to be taken out of the red line of any regeneration proposals.
The aim of the steering group is so the design team and residents on the group work together to ensure we are providing a regeneration / refurbishment programme that fits into the community of Somerton.
We are planning our next community consultation event for the end of September, details of the event will be circulated nearer the time.
Time and Date of Next Meeting
Wednesday 6 July at 17.30pm
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, please get in touch with us at community@newportcityhomes.com.
Thanks,
The Somerton team