Alcombe Lodge - simply the best!

12/3/2009

Alcombe Lodge is one of the most innovative sheltered housing schemes in Britain.

The Magna West Somerset (MWS) development near Minehead, scooped the prestigious title in the 2009 National Home Improvement Council (NHIC) awards.

MWS claimed first prize in the Housing Association Modernisation Project Showing Innovation for the Benefit of the Community category, sponsored by Electrical Contractors’ Association.

The award follows an £820,000 redevelopment of the scheme, which previously consisted of 18 cramped bedsit flats which were not considered to meet either the requirements or expectations of residents.

Aided by a grant of £100,000 from Somerset County Council’s Supporting People Team, MWS carried out the refurbishment programme using its own in-house Technical and Property Services trades staff and surveyors.

Alcombe Lodge now features 10 specially designed spacious apartments along with communal facilities such as gardens, a patio area, lift, full wheelchair access, scooter park and day rooms.

The project was resident-led throughout with MWS’s Tenant Design Panel choosing everything from colour schemes to flooring.

NHIC judges said they were ‘impressed’ by the facilities, describing Alcombe Lodge as ‘outstanding and innovative’.

Delighted MWS community services manager, Barbara Mullan, said: “We are very proud of this project, which offers 10 fully accessible homes with the communal facilities benefiting both our residents and the surrounding community.  

“I have had the pleasure of visiting residents in their new homes and they have made them truly beautiful places to live.”

The re-developed Alcombe Lodge was opened in September by local MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger.

After planting a tree to mark the occasion, he said: “This is a stunning development and I would like to congratulate Magna on all their hard work.

“It really is a first class facility and I am staggered by the quality of the finish of the apartments – in fact I’m even considering booking one of the rooms myself!”

MWS representatives were presented with a commemorative plaque by Housing and Planning Minister, John Healey MP at the NHIC 2009 Awards ceremony held at the Gladstone Library in London’s Whitehall.