Rother Living Development

30/06/20

Rotherham Council are pursuing a council-led home building program. The town centre, like many in the UK is facing challenges as a consequence of local industry decline and decades of under investment. The development will feature a mix of houses and apartments for council housing, shared ownership, and affordable sale.

Due to our relationship with Willmott Dixon Construction and Bond Bryan, we were approached to support their bid.  Subsequently, we have been appointed for full civil and structural services by WDC to deliver the 184 homes covering public realm, apartments, modern ‘back to back’ houses and terraces.

The £31.5m scheme is made up of three Rother Living developments – one on the site of the former Henley’s garage in Wellgate, a former riverside car park on Sheffield Road, and the final site on Westgate on the Millfold House site.

1.  Westgate Riverside, Sheffield Road, £13m
A prime town centre site will offer homes on the water side, modern terraces houses, and two palazzo scale apartment blocks amongst high quality public realm.  The largest of the three sites at 76 units, will accommodate allotment spaces and play areas in a development that adapts the qualities of suburban living into an urban site, typical of the model found in continental Europe.   A former car park, this waterside site design carefully mitigates flood risk from the River Don to create a pedestrian led, modern town centre living environment.

2.  Westgate’s Millfold House, £10m
This hillside site will be visible from large distances and in turn the panoramic views across the town will be a real selling point.  This 32-unit site will have two apartment blocks at four and five stories high along with a reinterpretation of the classic ‘back to back’ terrace.  ‘Homezone’ surfaces are used throughout to promote the streets as place of play and social interaction above car use.

3.  Former Henley’s Garage Site, Wellgate, £8.5m
The third development, consists of two apartment blocks containing 34 homes and 20 two and three-storey terraced houses. The high-quality new builds will be energy efficient and equipped with electric vehicle charging points. This site will provide a fully social rented site, and flagship scheme for councils building their own affordable properties.   Carefully working around a popular listed building, a series of interlocking streets and modern terraces sit adjacent a four-storey apartment block with under croft parking.

Already working across these sites at Sheffield Road, full site set-up is complete and work is on-going to transform the land, which includes the addition of flooding defences. Work has also started at the Millfold House development with ground preparation work having commenced in mid-June.

“Research by the National Housing Federation estimates that over 8.4 million people in England are in unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable homes, with over 400,000 people either homeless or at risk of homelessness – so we are delighted to be involved in providing much needed high-quality housing within the region.”