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ArburyP
Posts:11
 | | 24 Nov 2008 4:46 PM |
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| Taken from the Cambridge Evening News today... Doesn't look like much but it's a start. Pledge to fix estate's woes by Christmas CHRISTMAS is coming early for residents of a beleaguered Cambridge housing estate which has been abandoned by builders.
Hundreds of homes at Orchard Park are left unfinished because construction firms being hit by the credit crunch, prompting complaints about the lack of facilities for the community.
Now local authorities and developers behind the scheme have joined forces to take on the role of Father Christmas, vowing to complete a raft of improvements ahead of the festive season.
Broken street lights will be switched on, a zebra crossing will be created outside the primary school, and buses will be directed through the whole of Orchard Park for the first time.
Despite being nearly completed, the estate's community centre has still not been opened, but it is hoped it should be ready for us in a matter of weeks.
Alex Plant, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Horizons, which oversees housing growth across the county, said: "We want to improve living conditions for people who are living there. There has been so much bad news about Orchard Park, and we are willing to spend a bit of money to do something for them."
The move was instigated by South Cambridgeshire District Council, which has the backing of the city and county councils, Cambridgeshire Horizons, developers Gallagher Estates, and housing association bpha.
In September, the News revealed housebuilders Persimmon and Martin Grant Homes had stopped work due to the slowdown in the property market.
Just 360 homes have been completed - 40 per cent of the 900 planned - with scores of properties left empty, and residents waiting for shops, road signs and street lights.
Orchard Park's county councillor, David Jenkins, said: "That's excellent news, I am very supportive of this.
"Councils have got to take responsibility for place shaping, and not just doing the absolute minimum but seeing it through."
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| Nick Warren (admin)
Posts:73
| | 24 Nov 2008 5:07 PM |
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| Tom - that is both very interesting and brilliant news...
I know nothing about this "initiative" but will try to find out exactly what meat is on the bone of this pledge!!
Thanks, Nick | | | |
| Lu3ke
Posts:17
| | 25 Nov 2008 6:35 AM |
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| | I don't mean to be a Scrooge, but I'm not sure the fact that they're finally getting around to a small fraction of the things that they were contractually obligated to have completed Months ago makes them Father Christmas, exactly. | | | |
| ArburyP
Posts:11
| | 25 Nov 2008 11:35 AM |
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| A few points on things being improved:
Shops - there are not enough people on the estate at the moment to justify a shop. Most of us leave during the day for work, and with zero industrial units at the moment nobody works here either.
Chicken and egg - Credit crunch aside, the place looks an absolute state. Bad conditions and no facilities means people wont live here. If people wont live here we wont get any facilities and the place wont be tidied up. Something has to give - it HAS to be the developer pulling their finger out.
Trigger points not being met - I work in the construction industry as a cost consultant - and cashflow is king, especially at these times. Money in the bank is worth a lot at the moment. Also, construction cost inflation - which has been between 5 and 8% per annum in recent years is now negative. In other works whereas previously developers would be keen to build as soon as possible before tender prices increased, the longer they wait at the moment, the cheaper the price for work is. Perhaps this is a reason why Gallaghers are dragging their heels on the sports pitches etc?
Buses - Running buses through the estate will cost very little other than the cost of yellow marking the road and putting signs up. Citi 4 is however the worst bus service in Cambridge. The guided bus cannot arrive soon enough! Nice to see trees being cleared for this around Chariot Way today!
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| Lu3ke
Posts:17
| | 25 Nov 2008 12:05 PM |
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| Once more, I have to strenuously disagree with your comment on the appearance of the area. I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled, that there are large sections that have not been built on yet. Open space, preferrably un-landscaped as much as possible, is to be treasured for as long as we've got it. I could not be happier that I look out my window onto a meadow full of rabbits and birds rather than the four-storey block of flats that is eventually destined for there. My own unscientific polling of my friends and neighbours in Arbury Park tends to support this theory, although all of us would like to see the open pits and the like cleaned up. But, far from being a wasteland, an unfinished Arbury Park is a jewel in the rough of suburban sprawl.
You are right about the Citi-4. Service quality on this line is disgraceful.
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| Nick Warren (admin)
Posts:73
| | 25 Nov 2008 12:31 PM |
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| Luke - I'm mid-way on the wasteland/natural habitat perspective...if I remember correctly you look out on to the land the other side of Graham Road...is that right? That is a relatively nice over-grown plot, and there are one or two others like it (back of the play area for example), but over by the school we have spoil heaps and hard core piles that are really unpleasant to look at...up towards where the shops will be is the same, as is the back of the Martin Grant plot, the land behind the Banana and the plot to the south west of the community centre...
Overgrown may be rather nice in some places but many of the areas are just rubbish dumps, with broken pallets and all sorts of other builders waste...I suspect any movement there is going to be the ever so large rats not fluffy little bunnies!! :)
BTW - I love the tag line on the Cit4 time table..."nip in to town with the Citi4"...according to the time table it's 25 minutes from Orchard Park to the city centre...I can walk that same distance in just about the same time..not exactly my concept of "nipping".
I think the situation with ths shops is just frustrating - they will only build shops and commercial when there is sufficient demand from businesses and residents...
I think that if Gallagher had delivered the contracted public facilties by now (sports faciltiies, community centre, play areas and public open spaces) and if SCDC had delivered some of the Local Areas of Play (the little derelict patches of waste ground within some of the builders parcels), I think there would be a whole lot more to sell to potential residents...people would see how much more value here is at Orchard Park, and I think they'd sell a lot more of the houses..thus creating more demand for at least the shops...
I think Gallagher's lack of delivery on the public faciltiies has compunded the effect of the credit crunch on the private housing market at a time when the house builders really need to find ways to set their properties apart from everything else already on the market. If I were Persimmon, or Laing or Martin Grant I would be pounding on the door of the CEO at Gallagher demanding they get on and do their job!!
As an example, had the Circus been completed a year ago, they would have sold every single house looking out on to it by now...
By the way...fun as it is to know you all "online"...we really should meet up (in a pub?) somewhere for real!!!!
- Nick | | | |
| Lela
Posts:13
| | 25 Nov 2008 12:52 PM |
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| I'd like to second Nick's comments about the undeveloped land opposite my house. It's a spoil heap, surrounded by brick piles, reams of leftover equipment and the occassional plastic barrel of rubbish. We'd love the builders to clean it up, or let it grow, but it appears to be used as a storage area. The area at the end of our street (next to where the shops will one day be) is in an even worse state. Seeing kids playing on the piles of bricks has been a real concern and it's areas like this that have become prime locations for illegal flytipping.
Would love to meet up with everyone - How about the Golden Hind on the corner of Milton Rd and Kings Hedges Rd? It's ok on a weeknight - we used to go there for the local dive club meetings. | | | |
| justsb
Posts:2
| | 25 Nov 2008 1:27 PM |
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| To be fair the citi 4 is ok when it’s running to time which is rare, what I dislike is having to dodge traffic along Kings Hedge's Rd in the dark to get to the bus stop so the sooner it runs through Orchard Park the better. I suspect one thing that will have to change is the parking certainly around Graham Rd where one of the stops is. People seem to leave their cars all over the road, sometimes almost blocking it and often blocking a clear view when pulling out of the junction into the road. However I don't blame people for this considering the council's wisdom to grant planning for 4 and 5 bedroom houses with 1 allocated parking space... anyway that’s another rant!
As for the rats we had them back in the spring when a number of houses were still using bags rather than wheelie bins, I advise you to call the council, although their exterminator was useless so we used some rentokil rat poison from homebase which did the trick and was a lot cheaper, however with the influx of cats and kids in the area I doubt this would be safe anymore.
I also would love to meet you all, I guess the Premier Inn will have a bar and probably Beefeater when it's complete which I hear should be soon, so at last we may have somewhere to meet on the park!
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| Lela
Posts:13
| | 25 Nov 2008 1:54 PM |
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| | I heard the Premier Inn bar will only be open for residents only. I havent heard of a beefeater? That would be great. | | | |
| Lela
Posts:13
| | 25 Nov 2008 1:54 PM |
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| | (Sorry I meant the Premier Inn residents, not Orchard Park residents) | | | |
| justsb
Posts:2
| | 25 Nov 2008 2:04 PM |
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| | Yes, all Premier Inns have restaurants usually Beefeater or other Whitbread brands (table table, Brewers Fayer, Taybarns) and they're open to the public (non-residents). Good news indeed :-) | | | |
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