Stanhope residents go wild at Port Lympne! » Housing » 24dash.com

On Monday 1 September 282 residents from Stanhope in Ashford, Kent took a trip to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Lympne, Kent. The exciting day was organised by Moat to encourage community participation at Stanhope and to allow Moat staff to engage with the residents and find out what their needs and aspirations are for their neighbourhood.

Port Lympne is very different from a conventional zoo. The animals are able to live and breed in conditions as close to their natural habitat as possible. With 90 species of rare and endangered animals to see, the Moat visitors were certainly kept occupied and saw rhinos, monkeys, red pandas and elephants! Many residents chose to go on the African Experience Safari to see giraffes, zebra, wildebeest and antelope roaming free.

The day wasnt limited to seeing the animals though and Stanhope residents also had fun in the maze and saw the mansion whose grounds house the amazing collection of animals.

Moat resident, Mrs West, says: What a lovely day! My family and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was great to see all of the animals and to get to know other Stanhope residents.

The Stanhope neighbourhood is undergoing a £200 million regeneration and a 30-year PFI contract was signed on 17 April 2007 with Ashford Borough Council.

Over the next five years, the massive regeneration project will see the refurbishment of 323 homes and the replacement of seven blocks of apartments with 442 new high quality homes. Seventy percent of these (309 homes) will be available for rent or shared ownership through Moat, while thirty per cent (133 homes) will be for sale on the open market through Gleeson Homes & Regeneration South.

ENDS

About Chrysalis:

Chrysalis Consortium was created by PFI-focused Gleeson Capital Solutions to bid for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) PFI-funded scheme. Other partners in the Consortium are Kent-based Moat, delivering housing management services and Nationwide Commercial, who are funding the scheme. Nationwide Commercial and Gleeson Regeneration are partners in the successful regeneration project at Grove Village in South Manchester, a £103m eight year programme which was the first substantial Local Authority housing PFI, with a similar HRA structure to the Ashford PFI.

About Moat:

Moat is a housing association that has provided affordable homes for people in the south east for over 40 years. With particular strengths in affordable home ownership and key worker housing, Moat also provides general needs homes for affordable rent, supported accommodation and tenancy support services.

Moat is one of the Housing Corporations development partners and is also the governments appointed HomeBuy Agent in Essex, Kent and Sussex. Moat employs 450 people and manages almost 19,000 homes for affordable rent and shared ownership.
Moat is a leading housing association offering excellent customer service and building high quality affordable homes within thriving communities.
www.moat.co.uk
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