Residents at a new Accent Housing development in Hempsted, Peterborough, enjoyed a fun-filled community day last week.
Families enjoyed the bouncy castle, easter egg hunt, facepainting and free pizza, and took the opportunity to engage in seed planting activities with Nene Park Trust. A variety of local organisations attended including Burmor Construction, Care Zone furniture bank, the local foodbank, Peterborough Environment City Trust ( PECT),Chinese Community Tai Chi, Cambridgeshire Police, Living Sport, Department of Work and Pensions Peterborough Jobcentre Plus, Anglian Water, Peterborough United Foundation, Health Watch, Peterborough City Council Recycling Coordinators and Community Connectors. Calford Seadon kindly donated £200 to help fund the day and provided volunteers, which contributed to the event being a success.
Speaking of the event, Louise Graham-Smith, Director of Housing at Accent, said, “Building sustainable and happy communities is a key goal for Accent, and we’re delighted to see all the new families so settled in their new homes. Today has been a great opportunity for households in one of our recently built communities to get together and make connections and relations with their neighbours. As we continue to build new homes to try to alleviate the housing crisis, we will do our upmost to ensure customers are happy and thriving in their new communities.”
Helen Buckingham, Community Development Partner at Accent added, “It’s fantastic to see everyone coming together to provide a free fun day to local families. Our aim was to bring together a range of charities and organisations that could offer help and support to local Peterborough families, and we’re so thankful to everyone who came along.
Since customers moved in last year, Accent has been working with a number of local organisations to provide support, especially for those coming from temporary accommodation. The Fun Day offered a further opportunity to signpost to any local services that can aid families living in Peterborough.”
Harriet Hosking, from Burmor Construction, who developed the site commented, “Coming back to Trelowen Way to engage with the community has been really rewarding. As a main contractor our passion lies in building homes for families and communities, and our continued partnership with Accent underscores the value of this mission. The children really enjoyed our specially-crafted miniature flat pack houses. Who knows, we may even spark an interest in future construction professionals! We look forward to having the chance to reconnect with the team and visit again.”
Julie from Carezone said “This is the most heartwarming event I have done. I have met residents who Carezone have supplied furniture for, and they have all told me how this has completely changed their lives.”
Pia from Nene Park Trust said “A lovely well organised event, one of the best we’ve been to with Accent being very visible on the day. A great selection of organisations and the networking opportunities was amazing. The engagement from families with the seed planting activity and families talking to one another was lovely to see. “
John McHattie Peterborough City Council Community Connector said “Wonderful day. Good engagement with residents and partners. We’ve helped local residents today with volunteering opportunities with litter picking. Great food! ”
One young Trelowen resident commented “The day has been amazing; everything has been brilliant. My favourite was the facepainting. All the girls on the estate have been talking about it and looking forward to it.”
One child told us the event was “100 Out of 100”.
Another family said “It has been such a good day. We haven’t had anything like this before and it is lovely that everyone is out talking to each other and making friends. This is a great idea, and I hope this is done more often in the community.”
Trelowen Way is a development of 75 new homes, which was completed in October 2023 by Accent Housing, a national provider and developer of affordable homes.
