Wentcliffe Road, Wakefield

For Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) we have delivered a new build scheme comprising 123 properties at Wencliffe Road, Wakefield. This scheme was run in three phases, details as follows:

Phase 1: This involved the design and construction of 30 general needs
houses consisting of 2, 3 and 4 bed properties; 20 were for rent and 10
for Homebuy (shared ownership), with eight built to a 'for sale'
specification. Wentcliffe Road itself required extensive upgrading works to obtain planning permission, including road widening, realignment, new drainage and service infrastructure complete with underground rain water attenuation tank. This phase was delivered over a 43 week build programme which was completed on time in November 2007.

Phase 2: This phase followed on immediately from phase 1 and involved the construction of 43 general needs houses consisting of 2, 3 and 4 bed properties. 17 houses were for rent, 11 for Homebuy (shared ownership), 3 were disabled category 1 bungalows and 15 for outright sale. The scheme also required a large retaining structure approx 75m long x 4 to 6 metres high formed with Timber Permacrib retaining system. This phase was delivered over a 50 week build programme and completed on time in August 2008. Due to the current economic slowdown, WDH were unable to sell 13 of the 15 properties for outright sale so they decided to change these to rented properties. This meant that the tenure mix for phase 3 had to change, to incorporate an additional 13 properties for outright sale, to meet the requirements of the Housing Corporation.

Phase 3: This phase involved the demolition of 25 properties and the removal of existing road and infrastructure, reconstruction of a new mews court development and the construction of 50 new build general needs dwellings. Initially phase 3 was to include 33 properties for rent and 17 for Homebuy (shared ownership). At WDH's request we amended the tenure mix to build 20 properties for rent, 17 for Homebuy and 13 for outright sale. We commenced on site on 30th June 08 and delivered the scheme based on a 70 week programme, completing it in October 2009.

The total value of the scheme is £12.2m, and has been delivered using a JCT 98 Design and Build contract.

AA Design were the architects. The properties in phases 1 and 2 were designed to meet EcoHomes Very Good, and the properties in phase 3 have all achieved Code for Sustainable Homes level 3.