Whittington Park Housing Development & Horsbere Drive

There is an obvious amount of development ongoing in Longford lane with new roads and construction sites springing up virtually overnight. The initial roadways and traffic systems accessing Horsebere Drive are already in place, presumably ready for the construction of the proposed new school. With this in mind I took the opportunity to review the Whittington Park Housing development with the Project Manager Martyn Brooks of Barratt Homes. Martyn advises me that there will be a total of 291 dwellings on the site; a mix of 1, 2. 3, 4 and 5 bedroom homes. 191 will be constructed by Barratts with the balance built by David Wilson Homes, a sister company of Barratts. Of these about 60 will be homes built for a Housing Association, which will provide the opportunity for shared ownership

This Project will take about four years to complete and sign off with a target date for completion of June 2018. The entrance to the site is established and there will be an ongoing programme of roadwork and sewerage development throughout 2014 and the first phase of 40 houses which has commenced with the laying of the initial foundations in late July and is expected to be completed by June next year. The Sales team are expected to be in place by late December this year or early 2015 at the latest.

As regards the emotive issue of flooding, Martyn has confirmed that considerable design efforts have been made to recognise this issue and as a result the development has been engineered to raise the site to appropriate levels. The surface water is to be drained via an extensive combination of piped sewers, swales, an attenuation pond and an associated outfall channel into Horsebere Brook.

Martyn is keen to foster relationships with the Longlevens Community and has offered to field any questions or concerns we may have about this development. Obviously, within a construction environment it is not advisable to visit him on site, however, he is contactable by personal phone or email, and the details are: 07500 034039 or his email address is: martyn.brooks@barratthomes.co.uk.

It is worth noting that Barratt’s form part of a “Considerate Constructors Scheme” which is a system that is in place, to promote the Contractor‘s presence within the Community, whilst simultaneously enhancing the image of the Contractor.

At this stage the contribution of David Wilson is fairly minimal; however, as the project develops their impact will be monitored also.

I do hope that this has given you an idea of what is happening on the Longford lane site, which will become a huge development in Longlevens, and will inevitably, have an impact on the whole community. We will continue to monitor the development of this project as it progresses.