Residents move in to ‘green’ homes (From Swindon Advertiser)

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Residents move in to ‘green’ homes

8:00am Thursday 7th July 2011 in News By Emma Dunn

The first residents to move into the Triangle development, from left, Tracey Hackett and Sophie MacKey

THE first resident to move into TV presenter Kevin McCloud’s new development has compared it to living in a holiday home.

The Triangle, a 42-home development just off Northern Road, is the first scheme by Hab Oakus, the joint venture between McCloud’s development company, Hab, and housing group GreenSquare.

The first residents, who have been introduced to each other at speed-dating style meetings, as well as a barbecue, have already made themselves at home.

Tracey Hackett, 49, the manager of the Bulldog pub, was the first to move in on June 22, along with her partner Russ Wheeler, 48, and her son Sam Hackett, 19.

“It’s lovely. We feel like we’re in Spain. I like the size of it and it is so bright,” she said.

“It’s nice because you go out the front door and everyone is like ‘hiya’ and ‘morning.’ “We were so excited when we found out we were going to move here.”

The development includes 16 two-bedroomed houses, 13 three-bedroomed houses, seven four-bedroomed houses, four one-bedroomed apartments and two two-bedroomed apartments.

A total of 727 people applied to live in the development and there were interviews and questionnaires before homes were allocated.

The development prides itself on being eco-friendly and the residents have been given lessons in organic gardening for the community garden, are only allowed one car and can communicate with each other using an intranet system known as a Shimmy.

The Shimmy allows them to see how much they are spending in their electricity bills, report faults to the developers and send messages to other residents, Sophie Mackay, 23, moved in with her boyfriend, Daniel Hawkins, 23, last week.

“The neighbours are lovely. There are really nice and friendly people here,” she said.

“I came to the speed dating and the barbecue before I moved in. It has helped because we got to know who we would be living with. It’s all very friendly, it reminds me of Desperate Houswives.”

All properties have been allocated and residents will be moving in as the homes complete.

Currently 18 families have moved in and keys to the remaining properties will be handed over in the coming weeks.

Kevin McCloud said: “We deliberately designed the housing to be low-key and quiet, so that the residents and the landscape would take centre stage.

“It will be a while until the landscape starts to sing, but what’s really exciting is seeing the way the residents are starting to put their mark on the project.

“It’s very satisfying watching the project gradually become theirs rather than ours.

“It’s great that even before picking up their keys many of the residents have come together to start getting to know each other and find out more about how to make the most of living in these new homes – as well as planning what food they will grow in the shared kitchen garden.”

The building work is due to complete at the end of July, about four weeks behind schedule due to the cold winter.

Comments(17)

Colesy87 says...
9:36am Thu 7 Jul 11

The whole place is an eyesore. The style doesn't fit with the homes around it and ruins the look!