Hello!
Welcome to our October blog update about our work in Somerton.
Our last Resident Steering Group meeting was on 5 October at Nexus House, with a combination of people attending in person and online. 9 residents and the 2 Councillors attended. Terry and Andrew from Oxford Architects attended online, to talk through the design activity we are working on.
You can read the minutes in full here.
Project Plan
Our project plan has been set for 2022 – 2026. We have split the key actions into group, Community Engagement, Regeneration Areas, Refurbishment Areas, Approval, Residents, Procurement and Onsite Construction. This will help us keep track of our key milestones within each section. Over the next few months we will be looking at the data we collected from NCH customers to ensure we are building the right mix of homes for Somerton. We will be looking at the costs for the two pilot properties that will have the refurbishment works carried out.
We will continue with the voluntary purchase scheme for regeneration areas and we will also be looking to submit approvals to Welsh Government and many others.
These time scales are indicative and may change.
Valuer
Valuations are progressing along, we have bought back 2 properties to date and there are another 14 properties that are in the legal stages. There have been 39 requests for valuations.
Design Update
We are working through the designs for the regeneration and refurbishment areas and will be using the feedback given by residents of Somerton at the Community Event and our stakeholder partners to look at what changes / amendment’s if any can be made to the proposed designs.
This month the Steering Group looked at the Laburnum Drive proposed design as this area hasn’t been discussed previously. We are looking to improve public and green space in the area as it is currently a long row of houses with steps and a walkway to get to the properties. We are looking to improve this area with the public / green amenity space and providing the homes with off road parking.
We also looked at Hawthorne Road (lower end) leading up to Libeneth Road, which will comprise of 1 and 2 bed flats addressing the corners and a mixture of 2, 3- and 4-bedroom homes.
All of the areas will go through Secured by Design through the Police to ensure our plans are looked at in detail and any crime and security issues are designed out.
Communication
At the Community Event 86 people signed in, it was a very busy event, there were survey forms that could be filled out by hand and also a QR code was handed out so people could complete the survey at their leisure, we have received lots of valuable feedback and the online survey is open until Thursday 20th October.
The Councillors will be holding a monthly surgery at The Hope Centre on the first Wednesday of every month at 11am. The first surgery will be on Wednesday 2nd November.
Rebecca Sluman, Development Officer at Newport City Homes, will attend this surgery, if anyone has any questions about the regeneration of Somerton please pop along and speak to Rebecca.
Time and Date of Next Meeting
Wednesday 2 November 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