School visit to inspire new village street names

Wed, Aug 6th 2008, 11:15

A group of school children have been asked by a local housebuilder to come up with suggestions for street names at a new eco-friendly “village of the future” in Bristol.

The youngsters, from year four at Lockleaze Primary School, will be taking inspiration for the names from a recent visit to Redrow’s Cheswick development in Filton, where construction is now underway on the first phase of new homes.

The 77-acre site will be transformed into an entire new village of more than 1000 new homes designed for modern sustainable living, and the children have been asked to put forward their ideas to name the new streets, which are already beginning to take shape.

Accompanied by teacher Ellen Barnes and local poet Claire Williamson, the pupils toured the site and learnt about the wildlife.

Ellen said: “The children are doing a project on poetry and have also been asked to come up with new street names for Cheswick. We combined the two with a visit to the new development, where the children gained inspiration from the wildlife for their poetry and the names.

“They thoroughly enjoyed the day, particularly looking at the plants and ‘creepy crawlies’ with their magnifying glasses.”

Iain Stiles, Redrow site manager at Cheswick, said: “It was great for the children to see the site as it is now before all the new homes are built so they can see the transformation over time.

“We are calling Cheswick ‘the village of the future’, because the home are all designed to reach level three on the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes – ahead of time - and have been designed with 21st century modern family life in mind. These children are the next generation, who are becoming much more environmentally aware, so we thought who better to name the streets of this new eco village.”

The masterplan for the 77-acre site to the North of Bristol allows for a mixed-use neighbourhood centre at the heart of the development, where uses could include a supermarket and other retail, restaurants, a public house, doctor’s surgery, pharmacy and children’s nursery, together with residential apartments. There is also a proposed primary school site adjacent to this area.

The homes in the first phase, Tallsticks, are designed to achieve code level three – two years ahead of targets set by Government. Under the code, all new properties are graded on a scale of one to six, in terms of their impact on the environment. Each property is marked on nine separate categories, which take into consideration everything from energy efficiency to water usage.

Redrow’s superb properties will contain a range of features that make this standard achievable including aerated flow-regulating taps, which can almost half the amount of water flow, energy efficient boilers, low fill baths and sinks, and use of thermal solar panels, which can provide hot water during periods of sunshine at a minimal cost.

Other methods of reducing carbon emissions include energy-saving light bulbs fitted as standard, water butts coupled to rainwater down pipes and cycle storage to promote greener transport use.

The streets and open spaces have been designed to give priority to the movement of people over that of cars with a series of dedicated pedestrian and cycle routes.

For more details on the homes available, log on to www.cheswick.redrow.co.uk or call the sales team on 0117 969 6397.