Sonning Common – Putting new heart into the community
Delivering much needed private and social housing to the area, as well as benefiting the local community, is the Lea Meadow development by Bewley Homes comprising 65 beautiful new homes at Sonning Common, Oxfordshire.
The scheme is situated five miles from central Reading, and just over five miles from the traditional market town of Henley on Thames.
Bewley Homes is the main contractor for the project, managing the site and employing reliable and trustworthy sub-contractors. Architects are Tomei and Mackley Architects.
The properties include 39 homes for private sale and 26 for social housing, and comprise a mixture of two and three bedroom bungalows; three, four and five bedroom detached houses; two bedroom terrace houses, and two and three bedroom semi-detached houses.
Careful consideration has been given to the aesthetic detailing of each property – as in all Bewley Homes developments. This includes the use of traditional brick; clay and slate tiles, as well as dental course brickwork.
Simon Taphouse, Commercial Director at Bewley Homes said: “First and foremost, this scheme will see the delivery of much-needed social and private housing to the area and will also bring various benefits to the local community – in terms of financial contributions towards recycling, provision of a play area, improved bus stop infrastructure and highway improvements.
“To ensure that this development is of the highest possible standard, we selected Tomei and Mackley Architects, who we have used for a number of projects in recent years. They endeavour to incorporate the design criteria of context, aesthetics, function, cost and construction time into their projects, taking into account the economic, social and cultural environment of the project location – an ethos which marries with the philosophy we embrace at Bewley Homes.”
The development also includes extensive exterior landscaping and there is the provision of emergency vehicular access plus a new walkway to Kennylands Road.
In addition, in line with planning consent and as requested by the Highways Agency, Bewley Homes has widened the road outside the development to accommodate a dedicated right hand turn lane (to reduce any build-up of traffic travelling in the direction of Reading), as well as creating a two metre footpath and cycle path which extends from the junction of Peppard Road with Birdwood Court to the junction of Peppard Road with Westleigh Drive.
A new bell mouth entrance to the site has also been created, and new white lines, signage and lighting have been added to accommodate these changes.
Simon Taphouse concluded: “Like every development we undertake, this scheme is highly important to us. We always seek to deliver high quality, well-constructed, aesthetically pleasing homes which are also sympathetically integrated within their existing environment.
“This is why we place such great emphasis on the design and detailing of each property and why every single home is personally signed off to a Bewley Homes standard prior to being handed over to its new owner.”
