Priors Wood, Guisborough

Coast and Country Housing needed to act quickly to ensure that they retained their Housing Corporation allocation for a site just off Woodhouse Road in Guisborough and turned to Yuill Construction to negotiate a development package which would ensure that the scheme started on site before the funding deadlines. Yuill worked in partnership with DKS Architects and Coast and Country’s project manager Elliott Dent to finalise the design of the scheme and to ensure that all contract documentation was achieved within the deadline.

The site was a former Council depot on the edge of an existing Coast and Country estate which had been enclosed by a new bypass and was currently derelict. Yuill Construction constructed 25 three bedroom terraced and semi-detached affordable properties providing a mix tenure of rented and shared ownership homes built to Lifetime Homes standards. We also assisted Coast and Country in overcoming traffic management problems in the surrounding streets and in negotiating sewer easements with Northumberland Water across their adjoining land.

In addition we worked closely with Coast and Country to find innovative ways of dealing with steeply sloping gardens on the site and by the use of log retaining walls we were able to provide an aesthetically pleasing design which was also cost effective. Because Priorswood was previously a Council depot, the Yuill team had to effectively deal with the treatment and disposal of contaminated land which had resulted from oil and other hydrocarbon contamination.

Iain Sim, chief executive of Coast and Country Housing, said at the opening of Priorswood “the scheme’s importance to the town was reflected by the fact that it comes on the back of a detailed community consultation which confirmed that there was a high demand for affordable homes in Guisborough. In the Redcar and Cleveland area the average mortgage costs are about eight times the average salary but thanks to schemes like this buying and owning a quality modern high specification new home can be a reality”. 

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