Oakridge
Basingstoke
Situated on the edge of Basingstoke, this mixed scheme of houses and flats incorporates shops and community buildings, replacing an overspill estate of four and five storey walk up maisonettes and flats.
Built in the late 1960s with deck access, open stairwells, no lifts and minimal private gardens, by the 1990s this manifested all the symptoms of a problem estate. After the decision to demolish and rebuild, an extensive programme of consultation was undertaken leading to the adoption of a partnering approach to development and procurement.
The scheme achieves higher density than its predecessor, replacing 140 dwellings with 299, which is well within PPG3 guidelines, and provides more houses with usable private gardens. The first two phases use light steel prefabricated frames which enabled a high speed of completion to be achieved.
The new homes, some of which meet Lifetime Homes criteria, are for rent, market sale, shared ownership and key worker tenure. The chosen policy of “pepper potting” different tenures around the estate avoids concentrations of single tenure.
