Green-fingered residents got a welcome boost from Housebuilder of the Year Linden Homes when it gave them £1,000 to brighten up one of the gateways into their Oxfordshire village.
Members of the Village Gardeners group in Sonning Common were delighted to receive the funding for an improvement project at the junction of Kennylands Road and Peppard Road.
The spot is a triangle of land near Linden Homes’ emerging collection of superb two, three and four-bedroom family homes. The neglected patch will be transformed into a welcoming sight for people arriving in the village, with shrubs and year-round flowering plants.
The voluntary Village Gardeners are dedicated to making their neighbourhood look as beautiful as possible. The 20 members are led by chairwoman Chrissie Phillips-Tilbury, and include a professional landscape gardener.
Mrs Phillips-Tilbury said: “It is one of the entrances to the village and at the moment it’s just bare scrub. It will almost certainly be shrubs we plant and we plan to create it so there is colour at different times of the year.
“We first started out when we got tired of the situation of the three big flower beds being neglected in the village and nothing got done. So we formed a group and we have now replanted them. We have created other beds too, put in tubs and filled a wheelbarrow.
“We’re very grateful for Linden Homes’ support. The funding will help us continue our gardening in Sonning Common and give a much better impression for people coming into the village.”
The nearby new homes in Kennylands Road are designed to echo the local architecture of traditional English brick, pitched-roofs and quaint clusters of cottages. They are gathered in a sheltered site, screened by trees which have been retained around the boundary to ensure a sensitive new presence within the rural community, whilst providing privacy for residents.
Linden Homes Thames Valley managing director, Peter Carpinelli said: “We’re very pleased to be supporting the Village Gardeners and helping them make their community bright and cheerful. We are also very grateful to the team, the local authority and Parish Council for all their support in coming up with a suitable street name, Gardeners Copse. We felt this was very well suited to the road, which is beautifully framed by existing mature trees, making this street a lovely secluded cul-de-sac.
“The new family homes are improving the area themselves by replacing a rather run-down site, so it’s very satisfying to be able to go beyond the borders of the development to support these villagers’ efforts.”
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For further information, email Lyndsay Scanlan at lyndsay.scanlan@remarkablegroup.co.uk or Claire McCowan at claire.mccowan@remarkablegroup.co.uk or call 01962 893893.
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