Swindon homes to hit the headlines

I’ve been following Channel 4′s Great British Property Scandal with interest this week. It’s pressed home some important points about how bringing empty homes back into use could help tackle the housing shortage. Many in the media will sit up and take notice of the issue following the programmes and the stories they have thrown [...]

Cashes Green consultation puts localism into action

I returned from the Easter break today to the good news that a planning application to transform the derelict Cashes Green Hospital in Stroud into new homes and community facilities has been submitted to the local planning authority to consider. I blogged in January about the impressive level of consultation that had gone into shaping the proposals that [...]

Community comments key to Cashes Green consultation

After a huge amount of work, the final consultation event to discuss the future of the derelict hospital in Cashes Green, Stroud, was held yesterday. Proposals to deliver 78 homes on the site, which is owned by the HCA, has generated more than its fair share of interest, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the site has been disused [...]

Another year survived: five reasons to remember 2010

By any measure, 2010 has been a hell of year. On a personal level, it saw me relocate, switch jobs and get to know a new part of the country. For the sectors in which I work and the country at large, it was a year that saw a shift towards a new ‘reality’, sometimes at [...]

My three top snaps from 2010

Having good quality photography to support our work has been tough to come by for much of this year, thanks mainly to a spending freeze which has virtually stopped all work from being commissioned by the agency. But there has still been the occasional great image to use, often generated by partners who thankfully see [...]