I have two pieces of good news to report this week. The first is that work has started to build 22 new council flats in the town centre. This is the Council’s own build housing scheme at Brunel Place, which is off Station Way. The development will be six storeys tall and consist of 10 one-bedroom flats and 12 two-bedroom flats. All of these flats will be affordable housing and should be completed by March 2015. The scheme also includes 20 car parking spaces, two disabled bays, two motorcycle spaces and 24 cycle spaces.
The scheme has been made possible by funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to help build this development as part of its affordable housing programme. Other developments include 40 council homes being built at Buchans Mead at Breezehurst Drive in Bewbush with the amount of the HCA award being £1.44m across both developments. These developments provide much needed housing for those with the greatest housing needs.
The second piece of good news concerns the start of the major improvements to Crawley beauty spot, the Millpond, which will begin this month. Over the past few weeks, work has been carried out to remove trees from around the Millpond to allow building work to begin on Monday 21st April. The project is planned to run over the next 18 months and will see a new dam and spillway near Ifield Mill, de-silting of the northern and southern ponds, new and improved footpaths and boardwalks as well as an extra car park off Gossops Drive for 10 vehicles.
The clay to construct the new dam will come from the bed of the northern poind. This will be replaced with some of the excavated silt, which will also be used to form a new island in the Millpond. The remaining silt will be taken off site to improve agricultural land.
The work will be completed in three stages. Construction starts at the dam and the northern pond, in Ifield. Work then moves on to the southern pond, in Bewbush and Gossops Green, before the final stage at Bewbush Water Gardens.
This scheme is a major project for Crawley Council and will be appreciated by many residents of the Borough, in particular those living in the three wards involved.
Cllr Dr Howard Bloom
Leader of Crawley Borough Council