Commendation for best large housing development
Great lakes
Take a 250-acre worked-out sand and gravel quarry, add water and plenty of skilled professionals, mix gently and suddenly you’re cooking. What Berkeley Homes began stirring in February 2001 is due for completion by the end of this year, and the result is a 225-acre country park created for the benefit of the local community, whose management was transferred to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council in June 2004, and 325 new homes on 25 acres of land, most of which have now been sold at prices from £179,950 to £389,950.
As with a previous Berkeley development, Barnes Waterside, where Thames Water’s 140-acre Barn Elms reservoirs were turned into the 105-acre London Wetland Centre for Sir Peter Scott’s Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and 320 new homes were built on the remaining 35 acres, Mother Nature and the public have been the winners. The London Wetland Centre is now an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and Leybourne Lakes is an SNCI (Site of Nature Conservation Interest). The only losers in both places are those who did not buy a house or apartment at Barnes Waterside or Leybourne Lakes when they had the chance.
The new housing at Leybourne Lakes has been covered on pages 28-29 of this report. Here is the place to mention and illustrate some of the water-based activities available to residents and the public, including fishing, scuba diving, windsurfing, canoeing, walking, cycling and birdwatching. What better place could there be to bring up a family? Not many homebuilders can claim as much as that.
Apart from Berkeley Homes, credit must go the many professionals involved in this transformation from a disused quarry to a well-used leisure facility. The architects were Broadway Malyan, and environmental consultants were Bioscan, Reid Amenity and WSP Group.
HomeBuilder: BERKELEY HOMES EASTERN LIMITED
Berkeley House, Oakhill Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 1NQ
Tel 01732 227555 Fax 01732 465394
Contact: Leigh Hallendorff, Marketing Manager
Email: leigh.hallendorff@berkeleygroup.co.uk
Website: www.berkeleyhomes.co.uk
Architects: BROADWAY MALYAN
3 Weybridge Business Park, Addlestone Road, Weybridge,
Surrey KT15 2BW
Tel 01932 845599 Fax 01932 856206
Contact: David Moore, Director
Email: wey@broadwaymalyan.com
Website: www.broadwaymalyan.com
