Two Rivers Housing – Western Way Housing Development
A new development in Dymock, Gloucestershire is now complete, bringing 20 new homes to the area.
Undertaken by Two Rivers Housing, the Housing Association provides affordable homes in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire and has done since 2003.
The new development will include five open market properties, which are to be sold by the contractor, GP Thomas and one rented property for the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust. The 14 other properties which include, nine two and three-bedroom houses, two bungalows and four flats, have been taken on by Two Rivers Housing. Three have been offered as Shared Ownership, a part-rent, part-buy option, giving people the chance to get on the housing ladder.
Work on the project started in September 2013 when ground clearance on the site began. The site was then levelled out and raised up to allow work to begin in October 2014. Work was then completed on 17 December 2015 with the five private properties finished at the end of February 2016.
Richard Carey, Technical Officer at Two Rivers Housing spoke to Premier Construction Magazine and commented: “All of the buildings are a timber frame with a brick face on them. Depending on whether it is a house, flat or bungalow, then it will be slightly different forms of construction but the basic skeleton is the same on each one. They are highly insulated and heated by air source heat pumps because there is no gas locally, so they should be economical to run with. Where we have got gas currently, that is the favoured method of heating houses.”
As part of the development, the local council will be taking on the responsibility for a 20 space car park and a children’s play area close to the site. A canal basin has also been formed within the development, and it is hoped that in the future, as the canal network develops, the basin will be connected.
The main contractor for the development was GP Thomas and the architect was Quattro Design.
Stephen Ingram, Development Manager at Two Rivers Housing said: “The project was started a number of years ago and through the development and planning, it has taken quite a while. One of the problems we were looking at was an archaeological investigation. That took quite a while and it was quite extensive, over at least 60-70% of the site. From there we needed to build the site up from nothing on one side, to three meters on the right hand side to level off the site. The canal basin was developed as part of planning to the south of the site, which would be up to six or seven meters above the original ground level.”
Two Rivers Housing is now hoping that the development will enable people to stay in Dymock.
Stephen added: “The development is local housing for local people. Dymock is classed as a village and people were moving away, so 14 properties does mean a lot to the community.”
