A monumental milestone in its construction, work has officially started at Orchard Grove to build the first homes – and it is hoped construction will quickly gather pace on even more homes.
A Consortium of leading housebuilders are responsible for Orchard Grove; Taylor Wimpey and Vistry Group, which includes Bovis Homes and Linden Homes. Vistry Group will be working on this project as a joint venture with South West housing association, LiveWest.
Eventually there will be 2,000 homes within two neighbourhoods, a primary school, local centre, park and bus service, business park, plus 100 acres of open and accessible green space that will include play areas, allotments and sports pitches.
Work has begun to create the roads and drainage needed for the first 70 homes, to be developed by Taylor Wimpey. Bricks will be laid and homes will be under construction this spring. Bovis Homes’ first phase of 76 homes will hopefully start next month, and Linden Homes will follow shortly after. All developers will have sales centres on-site in the coming months and the impressive new garden community could welcome its first residents by the end of the year.
The new homes will be located in the ‘western neighbourhood’, the first of the two neighbourhoods to be developed. It will have high quality properties, an attractive local centre, and green corridors of parkland and play areas. A network of new roads is already being planned to enable people to easily move around the development and reach the new primary school. Proposals for a new 420-pupil primary school at Orchard Grove were backed by Somerset County Council last month.
Homes, buildings and places will be sensitively developed over the coming years to reflect the style and character of architecture in the local area, but with its own distinct identity too. There will be a range of homes for the local community to suit a variety of different needs and budgets, including private sale, shared ownership, and affordable rent.
Ian Pugsley, from Taylor Wimpey and the Orchard Grove Consortium, said: “This is a significant step forward for the project and testament to our hard work and extensive planning over many years. We are excited to start work and enable the first homes to be ready later this year. Alongside these high-quality new homes will be exceptional facilities and green space; this promises to be a unique and vibrant new community in the heart of Somerset.”
Sue Scholfield, from Vistry Group and the Orchard Grove Consortium, added: “This is an impressive and important project to be part of. New homes are much-needed and long awaited here, so this is an exciting stage for the development and we are thrilled to help this community progress.”
Keep up to date with work at Orchard Grove by following monthly site updates on the website and a dedicated YouTube channel that documents the remarkable progress of the new garden community. Both Taylor Wimpey and Vistry Group’s Linden Homes and Bovis Homes websites will have the available house types, once the sales information is available.
*Please note: all information is correct at the time of being published but timings may be subject to change*
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