Latham Avenue is a £9.7 million scheme, which comprises of the design and build of 95 homes on behalf of Halton Housing Trust.
The 95 unit scheme is built up of 83 one and two bedroom homes and apartments, all for affordable rent. A further 12 three bedroom houses were made available for market sale by Seddon Homes, our sister company. The scheme delivered much needed affordable homes in the Runcorn area of Halton. The former council-owned site completed in December 2017 over one phase.
The scheme had been designed to largely mimic the scale of the properties surrounding the site. The vast majority of the development is therefore predominantly two storeys in height, with only the two apartment blocks housing twenty-four one bedroom apartments at a larger scale of three storeys tall.
The proposed dwellings are based on a traditional vernacular with a modern twist applied through the use of simple detailing and crisp forms. Brickwork has been used as the primary material, with two different colours/shades proposed to define different areas of the buildings and to provide contrast as to avoid an over dominance of a single material colour.
A number of veterans from a group that meet weekly in The Grange Community Centre spent time on site gaining work experience. The veterans have been experiencing long term unemployment and suffering from PTSD.
We arranged a programme which enabled them to spend time with different work disciplines on site, to help them understand what is of interest to them and to start the process of up-skilling and assisting them in becoming work ready.
Seddon Construction Ltd, Halton Housing Trust and the design team engaged with the Local Planning Authority, stakeholders, residents and the Crime Prevention Officer throughout the design process.
A public consultation event was held to give residents the opportunity to review and discuss the proposals.
Mike Sollars, Housing Project Manager“The work was managed and undertaken with consideration for any who could be affected by the works.”