Feedback from the Biodiversity Enhancement Meeting in Feb 2024

By Nige on February 19, 2024 at 5:51 am
Type: News Category: Handover
Tags: Announcements | Biodiversity | Bloor Homes | Drayton Parish Council

As previously advised, the RA had a meeting on Wed 14th Feb 2024 with Bloor Homes (BH) and the Parish Council (PC), in relation to BH’s biodiversity commitments.

This discussion extended to broader points about The Dovecote, which residents may find interesting!

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Quick summary of the main points of discussion:

• The meeting was attended by 3 BH reps including our Adoptions Manager, 3 PC reps and 2 from the RA (including our consultant ecologist).
• The only element of BH’s biodiversity enhancements that was up for discussion were the bird boxes. These were supposed to be integrated into all garages on the development (we think that means approx. 50+), but they were never installed.
• We quickly concluded that a logical solution would be to offer bird or bat boxes to every homeowner, to be installed on a garage or a house. Any left over could then be offered to the PC for installation elsewhere in the village.
• Once we got into the detail, there’s a lot to consider: who’s going to install them, who advises homeowners about where to install them, what about guarantees/warranties/insurance for installation etc.
• We (PC and RA) quickly concluded that BH should install them. BH didn’t commit to this, but they certainly didn’t dismiss it either.
• Main action that came out of this: BH will send over details of the “offer” i.e. which bird or bat boxes will be available. The RA can liaise with homeowners to identify those interested in having them installed. You can find out more about this offer on our Biodiversity – Bird and Bat Boxes page.
• This was the first opportunity for us to have a face-to-face discussion with the PC – we have exchanged quite a few emails with the PC, but never got a sense of any real interest to be honest.
• The PC played a bit of a blinder for us. Their primary focus was not on the bird boxes, but more the state of the The Dovecote from a maintenance perspective!
• We had a bit of a look see of some of the failed planting and BH agreed to review this in light of the concerns raised by the PC.

After the main meeting, we had a separate discussion with the PC reps to see what I could gain from them:

• The PC reps highlighted that they had no real engagement with The Dovecote, compared to the other two large developments in the village (Miller Homes and Cala Homes).
• We emphasized that we had been exchanging emails with the PC, but no real focus had been given to our challenges.
• We offered to provide our contact details, to give them a way to raise questions about The Dovecote etc.
• We highlighted that we had agreed (with BH and FP) a handover plan – we have circulated details of this now.
• We highlighted that we had a Managing Agent Selection plan – we have circulated details of this now.
• The Arts Funding – the PC was very interested in discussing our Arts funding! The PC were not aware that we had prepared a brief for spending the £47k – we have circulated details of this now.
• Interestingly, the PC suggested there may be a potential offer for the PC to adopt the Public Open Space (POS)! So, in a similar way to the PC being responsible for maintenance of the other two large POSs in the village, the PC may be prepared to take responsibility for The Dovecote’s POS. That might mean we don’t even need a Management Company (MC) and there would be no Service Charge expenses for homeowners to pay. Might be a good outcome. The devil is in the detail though and there are aspects of the POS that the PC couldn’t take on. E.g. private roads, lighted bollards etc, so this isn’t something that is going to happen any time soon.
• The state of maintenance – having the weight of the PC supporting our position on these things when dealing with BH would be greatly appreciated. So, we have suggested to them that we could develop a snagging list together and if the PC sends that to VWHDC ahead of the final inspection, it might be more likely that VWHDC will do their best to get these fixes done prior to issuing of a Certificate of Final Completion.
• Standing agenda item at the PC meetings – we will have an agenda item at every meeting from now on.