Littledean’s Bright Sparks put TRH development on the map

Published by Jenny George for Two Rivers Housing in Housing and also in Communities, Education, Environment

Children from Littledean Primary School have proved they are streets ahead of the rest and named the highly sought after housing development built for local people in the village:  Three Trees Way.  The official naming ceremony took place on site on Tuesday 22^nd March at 1.30 pm when the new street sign was unveiled and a tree planted to commemorate this important event.

Two Rivers, the housing association responsible for developing these nine affordable homes, launched the naming competition in 2010 and asked Littledean Primary school children to come up with a suitable name for the new development. The winners – Maple class will now have their suggestion of Three Trees Way permanently on the map.  In return, they received £30 worth of book tokens for their school. Each of the winners were also presented with a certificate.

As part of the celebrations, there was also an interactive wildlife presentation during which Worcestershire Wildlife Consultancy provided knowledge on how the children can make a difference to safeguard the local ecology.

The development has been made possible with planning permission and support from Littledean Parish Council and the Forest District Council who have allowed these new homes to be built. This development of nine affordable homes has attracted 328 applications from local families who meet the criteria, in less than three weeks.  All homes have now been allocated to local people in greatest need and a link to the Littledean area.

Mrs Huggett, Head teacher at Littledean Primary School said, ‘We are proud of all the children who took part, it is a lovely link for the school to have been involved in this development.’

Malcom Vine, Strategic Housing Manager at Forest of Dean District Council said, ‘We were pleased to be able to help nine local families to maintain their links with the village. The huge number of applications for these homes shows just how great a demand there is for affordable housing in the Forest of Dean. As a council we aim to enable the provision of homes to meet the needs of the community.  As a result of the success of this scheme we hope that other parishes will be interested in similar developments and explore further the housing needs of their own communities.’

Garry King, Two Rivers’ Chief Executive added, ‘We’re committed to providing quality homes to meet the needs of local communities and we really wanted the community to get involved.  The children came up with some great names. This development demonstrates high quality construction methods but we have ensured that existing ecological features have been retained such as hedgerows and plants as these add to the landscape and provide important wildlife links.’