Intro for New Residents

This page has been prepared to help new residents moving onto The Dovecote to learn about what’s going on and what’s important to be aware of.

So, first off: WELCOME to THE DOVECOTE!

It’s an amazing place and one you should quickly fall in love with. There are lots of neighbours who are more than happy to help you settle in, so don’t hold back – ask for help!

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact with TDRA. TDRA is here to support residents.

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Useful Info

Before we dig into the detail of what’s going on with The Dovecote, it might be helpful to know we have some useful info that’s available to new residents:

Local Info – this page has some useful info relating to bin collections and local business/community facilities. We hope to expand this in due course.
Directory of Services – need some professional help? Here we have a list of reputable tradesmen that have undertaken work for residents on The Dovecote.
Find a Contact – need to contact someone about a problem? We provide telephone numbers, websites, email addresses for you to report a problem on this page.

As for everything else, let’s start at the beginning!

A Brief History of The Dovecote

In Oct 2015, Bloor Homes Ltd (Bloor) submitted a Planning Application to Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC), with it finally being approved in Nov 2016. It included the construction of 140 houses, (40+ were to be used for social housing through Soha) and a large Public Open Space (POS).
Construction started in 2017 and the first residents moved in Dec 2017.
In 2017, Bloor set up Dovecote (Drayton) Management Company Ltd (MC), which will ultimately be responsible for the maintenance of the POS. At the same time, Bloor appointed Chamonix Estates Ltd to take on the day to day running of the MC. Since 2017, Chamonix Estates Ltd has been bought out by FirstPort Ltd (FP).
In 2017, Bloor appointed Fairfield Company Secretaries Ltd (Fairfield) to look after secretarial responsibilities for the MC. Since 2017, Fairfield has been taken over by Mainstay Ltd and recently by FP.
So unfortunately, FP is at the heart of everything related to the MC moving forward and we are doing everything we can to avoid FP getting involved in running the MC
You can find out more about the original planning application on the Planning Information section of this site.
Shortly after those first residents moved in, our private Facebook Group was born: The Dovecote Drayton Community, which helps residents support each other and to share local information. It’s private, so you need to request access. As long as you live on The Dovecote, you are sure to get in!
In 2020, residents became a little concerned about the state of the POS and what was planned in respect to handover and as a result, The Dovecote Residents’ Association (TDRA) was formed.
Recently TDRA has established its presence on the web (with this site) and its own public-facing Facebook Group: dovecotedrayton.
You can find out more about TDRA on the RA section of this site.

From here on in, it gets a bit detailed. If you have had enough just now, come back to the rest of this later!

Latest Position with The Dovecote

All houses have been sold. The last house was sold late in 2021.
Residents haven’t been treated that well so far:
- Bloor tried to offload parts of the POS in 2020, attempting to hand these over to Chamonix (which would then have started charging residents).
- Chamonix/FP have started charging residents when they have no legal justification to do so (residents have started claiming these charges back from Bloor).
- Bloor and FP are trying to keep residents at arms length, even though residents are the most important stakeholder impacted by the POS.
- VWHDC has ridden rough-shod over the interests of the residents by progressing with handover activities without engaging with residents.
So to be completely, blunt, it’s been a bit of a shambles.
The POS is in the final throws of being ready for handover to the MC, with VWHDC having issued Bloor a Certificate of Practical Completion on 19 April 2023.
You can find out more about what’s involved in handing over on the Handover section of this site.
We are now on a firm trajectory for taking over responsibility for the maintenance of the POS at some point mid-2024.
TDRA has initiated an intent on taking control of the MC as early as possible. This is the biggest focus for TDRA right now.
You can find out more on the Taking Control section of this site.

Recent Challenges for The Dovecote

TDRA was pushing for Bloor and the Company Secretary (i.e. FP) to organise an EGM of the MC, at which we could elect Resident Directors.
Bloor didn’t want to allow residents to take control of the MC before handover since they knew we would ask too many questions of Bloor and we would resist Bloor handing over responsibility.
FP didn’t want to allow residents to take control of the MC before handover since this was a golden opportunity for them to charge residents whatever they liked for services that would not necessarily have been provided.
As soon as residents gained control of the MC, it was likely that the elected Resident Directors would terminate the contract of FP. A new Managing Agent would be installed and we would then have had far more control over our future.

That probably sounds a bit of a nighmare! What have you let yourselves in for? Well that’s where TDRA comes in.

We are looking after residents’ interests and we are trying to wade through all of this nonsense. We will keep you informed through this site and ask you to vote on important matters.

We are pleased to say that we are now in a much better position, since Bloor, FP and TDRA sat down and worked out an acceptable way forward.

Current Plan for Handover

You can find out more about the agreed plan for residents to take control of the MC on Our Timeline page.

It essentially means that we will allow Bloor to technically handover to FP after the final inspection has taken place, but FP has agreed to immediately transfer control to our new Managing Agent (MA) and to not charge the residents anything.

We have a step in the plan for setting up an EGM. We have already engaged with homeowners to ask for Resident Director nominations. We will be voting on these soon!