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13 Jun 2023
Loneliness Awareness Week
It's Loneliness Awareness Week this week, so check in on your neighbours, and if you're feeling alone, let someone know.
Homes in Sedgemoor invites councillors for a tour of their stock!
Homes in Sedgemoor (HiS) Chief Executive, Peter Hatch, together with our Director of Asset Management & Safety, Naomi, Property Services & Investment Manager, Rik, and Housing Manager, Darren, accompanied councillors Andy Dingwall and Fran Smith for a tour of our housing stock.
We spoke to HiS Chief Executive, Peter about the tour:
“It was a pleasure to show Councillors Fran Smith and Andy Dingwall part of the stock we manage on behalf of the new Somerset Council,” said Peter.
“Thank you for giving up your valuable time on an extremely hot day – I hope you enjoyed it!
“Once again a huge thank you to the HiS team for organising everything.”
We opened our stock to the local councillors within Sedgemoor to build a stronger connection with them during the Local Government Reorganisation, and to help them gain a better understanding of who we are, what we do in our communities, and how we operate as an Arm’s Length Management Organisation.
Our first Stock Tour took place earlier this year and was a remarkable success with all who attended.
The most recent tour consisted of visiting our properties within the Sedgemoor area from Bridgwater Central all the way to Highbridge and Cheddar on Thursday, June 15, 2023.
The group started the day visiting Westfield House, a 10-storey tower block, made up of 61 flats, in West Street, Bridgwater, which is the only high-rise residential block in Sedgemoor.
Westfield House offers customers a variety of services such as newly installed fire doors, a new fire alarm system, a communal area, emergency lighting, and auto open vents amongst other features. The HiS Team wanted to also highlight the cleaning and caretaking services which are delivered through our Service Level Agreements (SLA) with Clean Surroundings.
The team later travelled across the road to West Bow House to view the newly remodelled communal lounge.
West Bow House provides our customers with a supported housing accommodation for people who have support needs and is designed to enable customers to live as independently as possible.
At this location, there are a total of 39 flats, complete with a lift, a laundry room, and a newly remodelled communal lounge which was the focal point of this visit.
The group was joined by our contractors, The MD Group, who answered any questions about the remodelling.
Next on the list was the Bigwood and Staples site where we are building 29 new homes on the former Bigwood and Staples Printworks site, in Bridgwater, as part of a £4.3 million housing development
You can read more about the Bigwood and Staples site on the Latest News section of our website.
The group was led by Site Manager and LOHC contractor, Tom and the architect for the site, Nick.
The homes will be available by the end of September 2023.
The group also visited Trowbridge Close Foodbank, where the volunteers welcomed them to the hall. They explained all the challenging work they do for their community using one of our communal halls as their main base.
The group were amazed by the demanding work and their dedication to helping their community in Highbridge.
Before the group travelled on to the next location, Rik wanted to show some recent works we conducted on a void. A one-bed property in Highbridge underwent refurbishment works before a customer could move into their new home. The customer required a wet room, so we installed a new modern wet room to meet the needs of the customer. The refurbishment works took only 41 days and the group where pleased to learn the customer was moving in the next day.
The group finished the tour in Burnham-on-Sea, with a visit to Elizabeth Court.
Elizabeth Court is one of three Extra Care Schemes, which offers care and support to customers with an assessed care need through Way Ahead Care. The other two Extra Care schemes are Hilda Coles House and Gibb House, both in Bridgwater. At the property, the team explained the upcoming Planned Property Investment proposals for roofing and fencing and garden works.