Stonebridge City Farm ~ Meet Lucy

BBC East midlands Today recently visited our local farm to meet the animals, and Lucy who blows ‘raspberries’ at visitors!

First Look inside new houses top of Magson Close

                                            Hine £69,500                                         

Hine

Eastham Close House prices

Video Update: 27 Jan 2012, Launch Day of show houses

Stonebridge Park, Nottingham

Letter from Chris Leslie MP

25th January 2012

Dear Richard

Thank you for contacting me about the development at Stonebridge Park.

Thank you for all the information you sent and for letting me know your concerns about the progress of this scheme, I visited the scheme at an earlier stage and talked to the Council and Ministers about releasing the funding to get it moving.

I've been in touch with Councillor Liversidge and talked about concerns around delays to this scheme, and I know that he will contact me if there is anything I can do to help at this stage. I am happy to do what I can to work with the local Council and residents to make progress and I will make sure I stay in touch with Councillor Liversidge on this.

Thank you once again for taking the trouble to get in touch on this important matter.

Chris Leslie MP

Member of Parliament for Nottingham East

Best wishes

Chris

Stabbing Update by Caroline Lowbridge at the BBC

 

Stabbing incident in St Ann’s

At 6-30 pm on January 16^th a 16 year-old boy was stabbed in the legs in Paxton Gardens on the Stonebridge Park Estate. He is in a stable condition in hospital recovering from his injuries. Today Northampton Street and Beacon Hill Rise Road remains closed to traffic as forensic officers worked in the area. These photographs were taken at 11am today.

This is where the 16 year old boy was found, at the far end of this footpath.

Beacon Hill Rise Road closed as science officers work in the area

Northampton Street is also closed

VIDEO Update January

Stonebridge Park, Nottingham. UK

It was a cold day with the sun high in the sky. There are 25 weeks still to go before the scheduled completion of Phase 1a / 1b and it is clear that a great deal has been achieved so far.

The new road and pavements are being laid on the Long Hedge site at the top of Magson Close now that the houses have been completed, while the flats and apartment block are at the three story level on Magson Close itself.

Rocket Park was clean and fresh after the Christmas period, with spring in the air.

New houses are rising up steadily in Dennet Close, and the roofs are now being installed on a number of the building. A Planning Application to environmentally improve Lytton Close has been submitted to Nottingham City Council with the closing date for objections set for 1^st February.

The Peveril Apartments are now also at the third floor level, while roofs can be seen being added to the nearby homes under construction.

The video concludes with a look at the proposed Phase 2 lands at Limmen Gardens which are next in line for new building works if Leicester Housing Association is successful in obtaining the necessary Kick Start government funding later this year.

HOMEOWNERS are enjoying the cheapest mortgages

By Sarah O'Grady

HOMEOWNERS are enjoying the cheapest mortgages on record thanks to historically low interest rates.

On average people are paying £494 a month, a figure that represents just 15.4 per cent of their take-home pay.

At the height of the credit crunch four years ago homeowners were forking out an average of £601 in monthly mortgage payments – or 20.5 per cent of their take-home pay.

There was also good news yesterday for first-time buyers. The number getting their initial step on the property ladder increased markedly last year as banks became more willing to lend to those with only a small deposit.

There were 57,301 loans of 85 per cent or more of the property price, up from 43,379 in 2010.

The favourable lending conditions are likely to continue after the Bank of England left the base interest rate at its record low of 0.5 per cent yesterday for the 34th consecutive month.

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This is really good news for Stonebridge. Once the first houses are completed in the summer it will allow them to be sold more easily. In addition, it will give added confidence to investors in providing money to build new houses on our estate in the near future, knowing the developer will be able to sell them. Richard Pearson.

The Stonebridge Park Team

Meet the Officials urgently seeking new Kick Start funding for the community lead Stonebridge Park Regeneration Scheme in St Ann’s Nottingham. Please contact them directly if you are able to offer financial assistance to progress the Scheme forward, or if you are able to offer assistance in other ways to obtain the urgently needed funding in 2012.

Mr Matt Cooney
Chief Executive LHA-ASRA Group
3 Bede Island Road
Leicester
LE2 7EA
Tel: 0116 257 6700
Fax: 0116 247 0365
matt.cooney@lha-asra.org.uk

 

Lisa Culhane
Housing & Regeneration Manager
Leicester Housing Association
3 Bede Island Road
Leicester
LE2 7EA
Tel: 0116 257 6716
lisa.culhane@lha-asra.org.uk

David Liversidge
St Ann’s Labour Councillor,
Portfolio holder for Housing & Regeneration at Nottingham City Council
181 Windmill Lane
Nottingham
NG3 2BH
Telephone: 0115 915 5624
Mobile:    07507 650101
dave.liversidge@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Mark Lowe
Housing Development Manager
Housing Strategy
Nottingham City Council
Loxley House
Station Street
Nottingham
NG2 3NG
Phone: 0115 8763532
Fax: 0115 8763132
mark.lowe@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Stonebridge Social Housing Funding Appeal

Stonebridge54b@hotmail.co.uk

10^th January 2012

Letter sent today to members of Parliament: RT Honourable Grant Shapps MP
Minister for Housing
House of Commons
Westminster London W1

Dear Mr Shapps,

 

I am writing to bring to your attention the community led Stonebridge Park Regeneration Scheme in St Ann’s Nottingham.

There is an urgent need for good quality social housing in England to provide spaces for the thousands of people on council waiting lists, and for first time buyers to take the first step on the property ladder. At the moment your coalition arrangement of Conservative & Liberal Democrat MP’s are keen to give active support and finance to schemes that provide good quality social housing in the East Midlands.

 

As a former tenant of Stonebridge Park, and enthusiastic supporter of the areas’ Stonebridge Park Tenants & Residents Association, I am keen to promote and encourage dialogue and financial negotiations between MP’s, government Departments and the Developer Leicester Housing Association which will lead to a successful conclusion in obtaining the Kick Start funding required to begin building Phase 2 of the scheme in the autumn of 2012.

 

The community led Stonebridge Park Regeneration Scheme actively began in January 2006 when the preferred developer Leicester Housing Association joined the programme. Following a period of local consultations, and planning application, the first blocks of unpopular flats were demolished in January 2008 and the turf cutting ceremony to begin building Phase 1a and Phase 1b was held on 17^th December 2010. The first completed house on Stonebridge was marked at a ceremony in October, and the completion date is due in 20 weeks time; sadly it is all taking a long while to achieve!

 

Lovell East, the contractor chosen to build all of the houses, flats and apartments on the Stonebridge Park Estate, have done an amazing job building the housing units to a very high standard in a short period of time. I have followed and photographed the building works every 14 days over the past year, and I praise their high standard of workmanship.

 

Unfortunately, while the community led Stonebridge Park Regeneration Scheme was given a high priority in 2010 to acquire government funding through the Homes & Communities Agency, in 2011 the priority has been given less importance. In addition while the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced new Kick Start funding of £17m for our Local Enterprise Partnership of Nottinghamshire, Nottingham and Derby in November 2011, in which Nottingham City council may benefit by more than £4.3m – Stonebridge Park does not qualify under the criteria.

 

Together this has led to significant criticism of the Coalition, and Housing Minister Grant Shapps from the media and Labour front bench spokes woman Maria Eagle who said: “Mr Shapp's latest announcement was trying to hide the fact that he has presided over a 99% fall in the last six months in new housing [construction project] starts. I think the issue about affordable housing is that there isn't enough of it. Yes, you have to crack down on abuse”, but added: "What we really need to see is more social housing being built - that's what Grant Shapps isn't doing."

 

At the present time there is great concern that there will not be any new Kick Start funding to progress the Stonebridge Park Regeneration Scheme for another two years. It will therefore be held in limbo for another 24 months at a time when new social housing is in great need.

 

I am therefore asking for your full support in giving our community led Stonebridge Park Regenerations Scheme a welcome financial Kick Start to allow the Developer Leicester Housing Association to begin building Phase 2. I am also inviting Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg & Housing Minister Grant Shapps along to visit Stonebridge later this year to capitalise on the amazing publicity their announcement would generate if they give our Stonebridge Park scheme their full support and provide the necessary finance needed to complete the scheme in the coming months.

 

If you are a member of the coalition, please contact your senior officers in the relevant government departments and encourage them to assist in providing the urgently needed financial support to the Developer Leicester housing Association for the Stonebridge Park Estate. Please also ask the Treasury for the additional £11m urgently needed to complete our Stonebridge Regeneration scheme in the months ahead.

 

I conclude by saying thank you for helping our St Ann’s community with your generosity.

  Yours sincerely
Richard Pearson

Stonebridge Park

 

The area of St Ann’s today known as the Stonebridge Park Estate, was planned and built by the developer Whimpey in 1976 following the major slum clearance of old St Ann’s. The majority of the houses have no cavity walls or insulation, making them cold during the winter months and are expensive to keep warm. All the tenants have now had their homes improved by landlord Nottingham City Homes with new modern bathrooms, kitchens and double glazing under the Decent Homes programme. Home owner/occupiers have not had this luxury, and with a large number being elderly or in fuel poverty, are unable to meet the costs involved.

 

The blocks of three tier flats were not popular with locals, as they became grotty & dismal through the lack of council maintenance, while some flats became a haven for drugs and antisocial behaviour. The many interlocking footpaths increased crime in the area by allowing dark corners were drug dealing could take place, and burglars & criminals could escape easily.

 

Today with the demolition of all of the flats, and with the new sensitive design for the lands which eliminate many of the footpaths, Stonebridge Park is becoming a new social housing estate fit for the century ahead. New government Kick Start funding is urgently needed now to keep the programme on track and to provide the new affordable social houses needed by hundreds of families on Nottingham City Council waiting lists.

The Master Plan

 

Outline planning permission was granted to LHA_ASRA in 2010, and full planning consent is a mere formality. All of the sites needed to construct new houses, flats and apartments have been cleared and made ready for building to begin in earnest, and the detailed plans for the new properties have been drawn up and are ready for the preferred construction company Lovell (East) to begin their work. The only thing that’s stopping the social housing scheme moving on is the difficulty of obtaining new Kick Start funding which is urgently needed to continue the momentum to take the project forward.

 

Providing new kick-Start funding is made available this year 2012, Phase 2 will see about fifty new affordable social houses being built on the site. Phase 2 will also have more grass open space, and will be environmentally friendly. Phase 3 lies at the centre of our Estate were 23 new homes will be built. Phase 4 is next which will see a about 50 houses being constructed, including a row of large family homes (shown in pink) facing out onto St Matthias Road. The grey blocks indicate the positions of the retained housing of the existing residents.