Not such a grey day!
On a grey February Saturday afternoon, upon our Treasurer’s dining table sat some 112 pages of a freshly couriered contract for our signature. Which felt a bit inauspicious considering the years of conversations and project meetings and site visits and negotiations and planning applications as well as bat mitigations between ourselves, North Devon Council, Aster Housing Group, with help from consultants at Middlemarch, Gates and many other agencies – just a couple of squiggles with a black biro and back in the envelope for delivery to our lawyers. Despite the pragmatic austerity of the event, it marks a significant milestone in the journey from overgrown, brambled dereliction to thriving and beautiful community life.
The 112 pages represent the great deal of detail and complexity that have characterised this project. Upon their completion, the land, previously belonging to North Devon Council – a brownfield (formerly industrial) site unused for decades - transfers to the Ilfracombe Community Land Trust. At the same time, a long-term lease for the site commences with Aster Housing Group to develop 16 units of socially rented accommodation to benefit Ilfracombe’s community. Within the 112 pages are plans and pictures, clauses and conditions, tables, and topographical surveys, but what they communicate is a commitment from the involved parties to respond positively to the housing crisis that has hit our town so hard. And for me, as I squiggled my scruffy signature on the line, I must admit a sense of thankfulness for being part of that response.