Housing Development Programme: Autumn Update

Over the summer, Denbighshire Housing has been asking contractors to submit prices for building a block of 15 new Council apartments on land off The Dell, Prestatyn.

The contract has now been awarded to a North Wales based business (R.L. Davies Construction from Colwyn Bay) and work will be starting on site before Christmas with completion expected in autumn next year.

Llys Llên, The Old Library, Prestatyn

Also in Prestatyn, Denbighshire Housing have had planning permission confirmed for the redevelopment of the old library on Nant Hall Road. Denbighshire Housing will be building 14 new Council apartments on the site, and there’ll also be two business units on the ground floor.

They’ll be taking the opportunity to improve the access and parking arrangements at the existing apartments at Llys Bodnant, which are next to the old library.

Work is expected to start on site in the New Year, with completion towards the end of 2022. The new development will be called Llys Llên (Literature Court in English) to celebrate the presence of the town’s old library on the site for many years.

Denbigh, Llwyn Eirin

Exciting news! Llwyn Eirin, Denbighshire Housing’s 22 energy efficient Council homes have started being built on land above Tan y Sgubor in Denbigh. The contractor is making good progress with the new houses! During the spring, a special drilling rig was on site to bore holes, which will allow the water used for heating the houses, to pick up the natural warmth of the earth. The project is on track to complete spring 2022, and we can’t wait to see the new community of tenants settle in.

 

 To keep up to date on all our development projects visit https://www.denbighshirehousing.co.uk/new-homes/. It’s great to see new, social homes being built in Denbighshire!

External Enveloping and Energy Efficiency Improvement Works

Denbighshire Housing are committed to reducing their tenants’ fuel bills and improving the insulation of our homes. To help, during the summer, we successfully completed our first energy efficiency retrofit programme in Meliden. The programme has delivered external improvements to 55 homes in Ffordd Ty Newydd and neighbouring estates within the area.

As part of the contract, and with the help of the Welsh Government’s Retrofit grant, they have also installed a number of innovative energy efficiency measures within these homes. This has included integrated solar PV panels, external wall insulation and battery technology. We’ve also replaced the roofs, render and guttering to each house.

This investment is really important, and one, of only a few pilot programmes in Wales. We were able to install sensors in the homes to create a system known as Intelligent Energy System (IES). The sensors monitor the temperature and humidly of the homes, making them better for you to live in. They also help us track our progress in reducing the carbon footprint of the Denbighshire Housing stock. The data retrieved by the IES system also provides information about the amount of off grid energy produced by each house, which reduces your energy bills.

The programme was delivered in partnership with Sustainable Building Services, who have now worked with Denbighshire Housing on several high profile investment projects. We intend to roll out our next phase of works over the next few months, which will see a further 55 properties improved in Rhyl. Surveys are being done and we hope to deliver similar energy efficiency works here.

A further 600 IES systems will be installed in homes across Denbighshire, where we plan to deliver improvements in the next 3 – 5 years, as part of our next external enveloping framework.

For more information, visit http://www.denbighshirehousing.co.uk/

Working Together for the future of Pengwern community

Update on the community hub project

In our spring newsletter, we celebrated the success of the grant that was won from the Rural Futures Lottery, to run a community project in Pengwern.

The Rural Futures project will focus on making a positive impact with the community of Llangollen by:

• Providing the space and resources to deliver co-production activities and services. This will help a network of support that people can access to meet their basic needs.
• Increasing opportunities to raise skills and aspirations.
• Increasing opportunities to connect and give back to others.
• Building social capital within the community, and co-production with other related services, to ensure that we provide a network of support for the community.

The funding for this project will enable us to do this by:

1. Demolishing two garages to create room for:
   1. 3 bespoke units of the community’s chosen design
   2. To enhance existing & recently improved facilities
   3. Provide confidential meeting space
   4. A well-resourced community workshop space to help address rural poverty and isolation and the overall wellbeing of the community.

We are currently in the process of going through planning to move this part of the project forward.

 

 2. A part-time centre co-ordinator has been employed to:

1. Increase uptake and usage of the centre
2. Develop links with stakeholders to maximise opportunities
3. Deliver services that address isolation
4. Improve access to services and activities to develop skills
5. Provide training and skills based learning opportunities.

We have already seen the impact of the coordinators work, from the summer of fun activity programme that has been delivered.

Summer of Fun!

Over the summer, we ran a range of activities to improve resident’s engagement and community wellbeing at Pengwern, Llangollen. We delivered the programme in partnership with Pengwern Hub, South Denbighshire Community Partnership, Active play, Active Communities, Denbighshire Youth Service, Grŵp Cynefin, Citizens Advise Denbighshire and other local organisations.

All those involved helped 80 Adults and over 200 children to access activities over the summer. These included:

• Bike workshops
• Active play and sport sessions
• Family Foraging
• Knit & Natter
• Macramé workshop
• Nature & Wildlife workshop
• School Uniform pop-up session
• Family story telling
• Citizens Advice Attend anywhere support drop in sessions
• Giving out children’s free snack packs, thanks to donations from local companies.

We have had some great feedback from residents, that these activities improved access for residents to the Hub, and helped them feel more connected with their community.

One resident said, “We attended a foraging and bread making event in the woods. It was fantastic to explore local woods and really appreciate assets we have on the doorstep. It was also lovely to meet neighbours we haven't met before. The staff were knowledgeable and had so much patience with all of the mixed ages and abilities during the session & the bonus was a campfire bread we made to eat together.

Another resident said, “We attended a multi-sport event at Pengwern park, my son loved the variety of sports and the mix of children who he wouldn't have a chance to meet as he is in another school. The staff were wonderful and remembered his name from one we had attended before. We were given a snack pack to leave with and this was a great addition”

Pengwern’s Coordinator is planning more activities, with partners, to include:

• A competition with local schools to design a logo for the Pengwern Community Hub
• Events for Halloween and Christmas.

In addition to this, every Monday, 10am-12noon, at Pengwern Hub, there is a drop in session for Citizens Advice support. You can attend anywhere using a virtual platform. If you would like to find out more about how to access or to arrange an appointment, please contact office@sdcp.org or 01490 266004 where a friendly member of the team will be on hand to assist.

We hope that Pengwern Community Project will help a longer-term change to engage, enable and empower residents to end the cycle of generational poverty, and improve life chances.

We are providing the match funding and have worked closely with South Denbighshire Community Partnership, Friends of Pengwern and Severn Wye on the development of this project.