Ringmer Area Community Land Trust

07/03/2024

First Tenants Move into our Neaves Lane low rent housing.
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We are pleased to announce that Feburary saw the completion of all four of RACLT's low rent houses and that all the houses have now been let to RACLT members who successfully completed our application process in November and December of last year.

The houses comprise a pair of semi detached units, each with a 2 bed and a 3 bed house, built for affordable rent to young families with strong connections to Ringmer. Each house has been built to a high specification, with energy efficiency in mind to keep tenants energy costs to a minimum. They have wheelchair access and potential for the downstairs lavatories to incorporate a shower. Fibre broadband, TV and telephone points come as standard.

The houses are let through and managed by St. James Lettings in Lewes. A mortgage has been provided by The Ecology Building Society.

We are grateful to all those who have contributed to the success of these houses including;
Lewes District Council and Ringmer Parish Council who have collectively provided over £350,000 towards the £900,000 development costs. We have also received charitable donations of some £200,000.
Emma Petrykow for the design and design management.
Duncan Redshaw and his team for construction.
Sy Morse-Brown for project oversight.
Max Pengelley, our Chairman, for the significant personal time he has committed to many aspects of the development, including securing the remaining development funding needed to complete the project.
We would like to wish all our new tenants well in their new accommodation and look forward to redirecting the focus towards our next projects including the new Broyle Gate Farm Community Sports Facilities.

13/09/2023

AGM 2023

This year's AGM will be held at the Ringmer Parish Council Offices at 19.00 on the19th October 2023.

Ringmer Parish Council
Old School Close
Ringmer
East Sussex
BN8 5RA - Access via Harrisons Lane then Greater Paddock

The meeting will provide an update on the 4 new houses on Neaves Lane, which will be available for occupation in November. A separate post will be sent out on this shortly asking for applications.

Papers will be made available a few days before the meeting on our website.

RACLT AGM 2023 – 19th October, Parish Council Offices by Julian Morgan-Jones | Sep 13, 2023 | EventsThis year’s AGM will be held at the Ringmer Parish Council Offices at 19.00 on the19th October 2023.Ringmer Parish Council Old School Close Ringmer East Sussex BN8 5RA – Access via Harrisons Lan...

19/02/2023

LDC Awards RACLT £200,000 to help fund the Neaves Lane Development.

Lewes District Council has awarded RACLT £200,000 to support our Neaves Lane development. With development costs at an estimated £700,000 this is a significant and very welcome contribution. Other funding is coming from generous donations and from a development loan from the Triodos bank.

To recognise this and to see how the development is going LDC Councillors visited the site together with the RACLT chairman and other RACLT steering group members and contractors working on the development on the 7th February 2023.

The visit even made the LDC news. Click on the link below for more. https://www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk/lewes-district-council-news/new-homes-are-made-for-ringmer-by-ringmer/

03/12/2022

RACLT’s low cost housing rises ever closer to completion at our Neaves Lane development

Significant progress is being made on Ringmer Area Community Land Trust’s first batch of low cost housing at Neaves Lane.

The first floors are now being added to our four new houses, meaning completion within the first half of next year. Given the challenges faced during COVID and the increased costs from recent inflationary pressures this is a significant achievement.

The photos below show the first floor construction now going on at Parsons Green, following the completion of the ground floor “brick and block” works for all four houses. The last photo taken through what will be the rear bedroom window, shows what an amazing view towards the South Downs, our tenants will have.

18/09/2022

Construction restarts at Neaves Lane

Some good news at this sad time – work has restarted on building our four new houses at Neaves Lane, Ringmer.

Previously, in Stage I of our construction programme, we had completed the foundations, foul drainage connection to main sewer, surface water drainage and run off attenuation, electricity and mains water connections. This allowed us to pass some construction milestones and satisfy some planning conditions. We have also carried out extensive hedge planting and created “wildflower” meadow strips around the whole site, as part of our biodiversity uplift commitments required by Natural England.

In Stage 2 we will be building the main superstructure of our four houses including all the walls and roofs and fitting of all the doors and windows to give us watertight buildings ready for plumbing, electrics, installing kitchens and bathrooms and completion of painting and decorating in Stage 3 of our construction program.

Our houses have been designed to keep not only our rents as low as possible but also running costs. They will have high levels of thermal insulation and be equipped with Air Source Heat Pumps and PV panels on the roofs to keep energy costs as low as possible.

Our aim is to have these houses ready for occupation in mid 2023.

Thanks,

Max

Chairman – Ringmer Community Land Trust

14/11/2021

RACLT Appoints Groundworks Contractor for Neaves Lane Affordable Housing.

RACLT is pleased to announce that it has appointed a Groundworks Contractor for our Affordable Housing project on Laughton Road at the junction with Neaves Lane. Following a competitive tendering process, we have appointed REDS (Roofing and Building) based on the Laughton Road in Ringmer.

We are delighted that the winning tender came from a Ringmer based contractor and we would like to thank Duncan Redshaw, managing director of REDS, for getting on site so quickly, with digging of the trenches for the foundations of the four houses which started 11th November’21

27/08/2021

GOOD NEWS! AT LAST - WORK BEGINS ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AT NEAVES LANE, RINGMER.

After a rollercoaster ride securing full planning permission, due to staff shortages in both Lewes District Council and several departments in East Sussex County Council, we were able to submit our Bio-remediation Proposals to Natural England in May. Again we encountered considerable delays in getting a response, citing staff shortages due to the COVID pandemic. When it finally came, it was extremely unhelpful!

Luckily, our ecology consultants, Bakerwell, came up with an alternative licensing route and we received the necessary licence some three weeks ago. We were then in a rush to get started on site with the necessary bio-remediation actions required under the planning conditions applied to our site. This has been required, following the discovery of Great Crested Newts on another site across the Laughton Road. We are also required to demonstrate "a minimum of a 10% Biodiversity Uplift overall”, as part of the new planning conditions required by Lewes District Council, which came into effect in 2021.

Thanks to the huge efforts made by Grant Parsons, a local builder and owner of the site, we now have the required log piles and hibernacula to create habitats for invertebrates, beetles, insects etc., as well as places for hibernation over winter. In addition, reptile fences have been erected around the perimeter of the actual build site to prevent harm to reptiles and amphibians during construction of our houses.

We are now able to construct the three ditch crossings to provide the access points to the build site off the Laughton Road, together with connections to the electricity and water mains. Once this work is complete, we will be erecting security fencing around the build site, which in turn will then allow us to begin groundworks, including foundations and installation works for foul sewers and storm water drains.

As well as the generosity of Grant and Karen Parsons in donating the land to RACLT for our four affordable homes, we would also like to thank our amazing architect, Emma Petrokow, who has worked tirelessly for us and helped us navigate our way through the endless layers of bureaucracy that is part and parcel of today’s planning system. Without her efforts, we would not be where we are now - so a very big thank you to Emma.