During this time the project designs went out to tender and a shock was in store
During this time, the project designs went out to tender and a shock was in store. The project had included around £4m for the houses and roads, paths and landscaping. But this came in at around £7m! “We heard word had gone around contractors not to touch it,” remembers Comfort. “The steep site, the unusual homes and our multi-headed client structure put us beyond the pale.”But new contractors were found who hoped the cost would be kept in the region of £4.6m Yet rising prices have dogged the project.
“We had originally been advised that we should budget for £70 per square foot,” says Comfort. “But this rose to around £90 and then a final figure of £120 – a 71-per-cent increase. Some of us had to dig deeper and abandon ideas of income from savings, some sold properties, and some left.”But the group had their vision to get them through. “Even in the worst times, David always looked for a way to solve the problem and to reach the next stage,” says Rowbotham, “and we were all roped together in this and we had to find a way through.”In September 2003 the first of the group took possession of their homes. Comfort and Rowbotham admit it has been a roller-coaster ride.
“Green building definitely has a price and, although a lot of our original ideas got sheared off, as a community we are much further up the green scale than most. We all recycle like mad and I’m even using a worm-bin for compost – something I never thought I’d do,” laughs Rowbotham.Springhill Cohousing is at www springhillcohousing ; the UK Cohousing Network is at www. cohousing .uk; ‘Designing Your Natural Home’ by David Pearson is published by Gaia Books What is cohousing?Developments of between 20 and 40 homes that share communal facilities and green space are called cohousingResidents live in their own private homes with kitchens, but share facilities including larger kitchens, dining rooms, laundry rooms and child careCommunities design their own developments to meet their specific needs, so no two projects are the sameCohousing can be urban, suburban or rural, and varies from low-rise to town-houses and detached housesShared green space is important, whether for gardening, play or a place to gather. Houses are normally built close together to leave as much open land as possible for shared useOld-fashioned neighbourhood values are the emphasis of developments, so houses are arranged to look out on a common garden shared by allCommunal areas are pedestrian, so neighbours see each other more and children can play safelyCommunities are in charge of maintaining their own developments and are in charge of upkeep and repairsThere are distinct environmental advantages of cohousing as it is usually sited on a brown-field site50 Danish families came up with the idea of co-housing and organised the first community project in 1967.
Five per cent of the Danish population now lives this wayCanada has seven completed communities with 15 more plannedAmy Winston. The underdogs had their day in the British Basketball League on Saturday when Guildford Heat, Birmingham Bullets, Chester Jets and Plymouth Raiders all beat teams above them in the table. The Raiders, in ninth and battling for a place in the play-off quarter-finals, knocked the title-contending Scottish Rocks off top spot with a 77-64 win at The Pavilions, allowing Newcastle Eagles to lead the table with fewer defeats.
The Raiders pulled away with a 23-10 final quarter after the visitors’ coach Steve Swanson was ejected. Guildford moved up to fifth with an impressive 96-82 win at under-strength London Towers, who missed the injured Lynard Stewart. Brian Dux and Dean Williams scored 19 points for Guildford who also beat Plymouth 98-89 last night.Birmingham won only their sixth game of the season, by 88-85 at Leicester Riders where Yorick Williams led all scorers with 30 points including 11 in the final quarter.Chester jumped above Brighton Bears into seventh place by beating them 82-81 on Saturday, Shawn Myers scoring the winning basket at the buzzer, but the Bears bit back with a 79-76 win in Chester last night.. The circus is ready, the gladiators are assembling. The calm before tomorrow’s storm was actual as well as metaphorical at Cheltenham yesterday, when a chill, still day dawned with Cleeve Hill, the stunning backdrop to racing’s most famous amphitheatre, dusted with snow.
The most serious logistical problem was that overnight temperatures of minus nine had frozen the water pipes in both stable yards but that was quickly resolved and the behind-the-scenes business of putting on the greatest show on turf progressed in its inexorable rhythm. By last night there were 50 Irish invaders – including reigning dual hurdles champion Hardy Eustace and two of his rivals, Macs Joy and Asian Maze – safely ensconced in their boxes on site, a continuous succession of bay, brown, chestnut, and grey forms emerging from lorries, glad at last to stretch their limbs after the ferry journey. The clip-clop patter of hooves and high, questioning whinnying mixed with hails of recognition in accents from Dublin to Derry to Dingle. The party is ready to start.
Hardy Eustace will face 16 opponents in tomorrow’s 76th Champion Hurdle in his bid to match the hat-tricks of Hatton’s Grace (1949-51), Sir Ken (1952-54), Persian War (1968-70), See You Then (1985-87) and Istabraq (1998-2000). They had been uprooted from the East End at the beginning of the war and sent away by parents who thought they might never see them again.
