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Torquay's eco development officially opens |
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11 Apr 2014, 9:05 PM
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An award-winning housing development in Torquay, the first large-scale eco-development in the South West, has officially been opened with the unveiling of a sculpture celebrating the Devon coastline.
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Sovereign Living's flagship Beechfields View was completed last year as a partnership development with Torbay Council. Representatives of key stakeholders, including Torbay Council and Torbay Development Agency came together on Wednesday April 2, to celebrate the achievement.
The project was delivered by Sovereign and built by Leadbitter with land allocated free of charge by Torbay Council and funding of £650,000. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) invested £7.2 million in the scheme.
Sarah Griffin, Sovereign's Regional Head of Development, who oversaw the project from its inception in 2008, praised Torbay Council's "dream of innovation to reduce fuel poverty and provide a highly sustainable scheme. This is cause for celebration; this is the first time Torbay has had a scheme of this nature with such high sustainability. This has been six years in the making. An awful lot of research was carried out into the sustainability and a lot of consultation with local residents on how the scheme should look."
In November, Beechfields View was recognised for its "astonishing achievement" when it won in the Best Starter Home category at the What House Awards.
"Sovereign have brought their experience, knowledge and drive to form an excellent partnership with Torbay that has seen us deliver this fantastic community that we can all be proud of," said Deputy Mayor, Cllr David Thomas of Torbay Council, at the event.
"There have been many obstacles along the way, and I think we all wondered if this was going to be possible.
"We have overcome these problems and we should all be delighted with what we have achieved together."
The affordable homes at Beechfield meet levels four and five of the government's Code for Sustainable Homes, giving it the highest level of housing sustainability on such a large scale in the South West.
To achieve this, features such as super-insulated walls, triple-glazing, photovoltaic panels and rainwater harvesting were incorporated into the design.
"These properties are the most energy-efficient homes in Torbay, which, most importantly, means really low bills for our residents," said Cllr Thomas.
A highlight of the event was the unveiling of the sculpture by the celebrated Danish artist Merete Rasmussen.
The sculpture, conveying the movement of the sea, was inspired by the nearby Devon coastline."I have often lived by the coast, so the sea has been important in my life. The sculpture is a continuous surface, with an unbroken line running through the whole form like the waves. My aim was to capture the form, texture and colour of the coast near here," Merete said.
The land on which Beechfields is built was given by Torbay Council to Sovereign free of charge. At first it seemed an unpromising site – 4.6 acres of steeply sloping land adjacent to an old landfill site.
Now, the eye-catching £20 million development, which sits atop a hill in the Barton area of Torquay, has provided 144 homes of various tenures, including accommodation for older persons, wheelchair-users, key workers and first-time buyers.
That is a view echoed by Alison Hernandez, local councillor for Shiphay with the Willows ward: "Nobody believed we could build a development on this site. Now it's become quite iconic in this area. The residents that I meet here are absolutely delighted. Bills are so low and it's made a real difference to people's lives. In Torbay we've got child poverty, fuel poverty and this is really helping to ensure that residents have got a better quality of life for the future."
There are 144 homes at Beechfields. Of the 65 homes for general needs rent, eight are adapted for wheelchair users, and 25 in a block for older people. There are 17 shared ownership apartments and 20 at discounted market rent for key workers. The development boasts 42 open market sale homes, including six FirstBuy and 14 Help to Buy homes.
Credits:: Herald Express
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