A ground-breaking development of new homes in South Shropshire has scooped a national award for setting the standard in environmentally friendly building.
Rocks Green, near Ludlow, was named Most Sustainable Larger Housing Project of the Year in the Sustainable Housing Awards 2009, run by the Chartered Institute of Housing with Inside Housing and Footprint magazines.
Judges picked Rocks Green, developed by South Shropshire Housing Association, as the winner over five other projects from around the UK. The results were revealed at an awards ceremony in London hosted by Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, and attended by around 600 people.
Rocks Green features 91 extremely energy efficient properties which receive their heating and hot water from an environmentally friendly biomass boiler, which burns wood chips from locally-sourced timber.
Rocks Green is also the first new build development in Shropshire to incorporate ‘Homezone’, a traffic management system widely used in Europe which provides a safe environment for pedestrians and slows cars down to a walking pace, using a variety of construction materials.
The competition was judged by a panel of experts, including: Robert Napier the chairman of the Homes and Communities Agency; Neil May, managing director of Good Homes Alliance; Jon Lovell, head of sustainability at Drivers Jonas; Simon Mcwhirter, the head of campaigns at WWF Homes and Alan Yates, director of regeneration at Accord Housing Association.
Managing director of South Shropshire Housing Association, Paul Sutton, said: “Everyone involved in Rocks Green is thoroughly delighted to have won this prestigious award. We set out to create the most sustainable development possible which would minimise its impact on the environment, support the local economy and be a credit to the area. All of the hard work of our own team and our partners in the project, particularly Vision Mills Architects, has been recognised and I congratulate each and every one of them.
“Rocks Green sets the standard for what is possible when building the homes and communities of the future and we hope it stands as an example to the wider house-building industry.”
SSHA is part of Shropshire Housing Group, which also includes Meres & Mosses Housing Association, in North Shropshire, and property maintenance firm Total Response Limited.