“Crash, bang, whiz, whirr, snap, clank, hiss, pop!” was how one young person from Cardinham & St Neot primary school described the noise of building nine new houses in Poundstock Close, prompting Andy Moore, chief executive of PHA to quip, “all that noise sounds like a health and safety issue!”
The homes, which include two ‘shared ownership’ properties, were built in the beautiful village of Cardinham over two years by DCHA and are now managed by PHA. The scheme was part funded by the Homes and Communities Agency, the national housing and regeneration agency. And the former North Cornwall District Council – now Cornwall Council – donated the site as free land.
To get the youngsters from the village school involved in what was happening around them, we asked them to write poetry and draw pictures about the building works. The poems were then performed by the children themselves in the parish hall after the ribbon cutting ceremony attended by PHA’s chief executive, local MP, Dan Rogerson, board members, construction partners, a representative from the school and parish council, and residents. And in return for the children’s creative endeavours, the Devon and Cornwall Housing group provided the school with £200 worth of books to bolster the school library.
Dan Rogerson who cut the ribbon across one of the newly occupied homes and toured two of the houses said, “These new properties will be a comfortable, affordable home to families who have needed them for too long. They are built to high energy efficiency standards, so should be reasonably cheap to heat.” He went on to say about the shared ownership properties (homes in which people can part rent/part buy to help them get on the property ladder), that they, “set an example of the type of quality housing we need in rural communities like ours, designed and priced to be within the grasp of local people.”
Residents who have already moved into Poundstock Close were asked about what they thought of their new homes, and all of them praised the quality of the houses, the peace and quiet of the location and the close proximity to the highly rated primary school.
But the last word should really go to one of the very talented poets…
Bricks.
Bricks are good for building
Bricks are good for building walls
Bricks are good for building houses
Bricks are good for building a home.
Georgie, aged 5.
