The Council’s housing department has broken ground on the third phase of its Council new build programme which is well on its way to delivering over a hundred quality homes for rent by Dartford Council tenants.
Following on from the provision of more than 80 homes in Temple Hill the focus has now moved to Swanscombe, where subject to planning permission, 27 homes over 3 sites will be built. This is in addition to building 3 purpose built bungalows which will be built on a former council yard on Tree estate.
The sites are as follows:
Milton Road Garage site: This site, located in Swanscombe, has planning permission for 7 homes.
Keary Road former Garage site: This site, also located in Swanscombe, has planning permission for 6 homes.
Gilbert Close Garage site (subject to planning permission being granted): This site, located in Swanscombe, has development potential for 14 homes.
Mead Crescent: This site, located on the Tree Estate, is a small redundant site with planning permission for 3 one bedroom bungalows, to accommodate older persons in need of this type of housing, e.g. wheelchair adapted etc.
The Chair of the Dartford Tenants & Leaseholder Forum, TSG the Contractor, Ridge the project’s technical consultant and the Council’s Housing team joined Jeremy Kite, Leader of Dartford Council, at the ground breaking event who said;
“We want to create a meaningful quantity of new homes for local people and to ensure that we deliver it right across the Borough, not just close to our town centre.
This was only common sense. Also it ensures families can live close to their own communities, extended families and social networks.
Whilst we can’t compete with commercial developers for land (although it’s worth recognising that our design and build-quality tends to be as high as any private developer’s local offering) we must look to sites within the Council’s ownership and reasonably close to sustainable infrastructure.
When completed in 12-18 months’ time, the properties will be rented to local people and, as we have done previously, will only be offered to Dartford residents who are either transferring from other Dartford Council owned properties or via the qualified housing register.”