Tenants celebrate completion of improvement
work with a mince pie tea party
Spire Homes held a celebratory mince pie tea party on
22nd December to mark the completion of improvement
works and the installation of a new lift at the Gainsborough Court
sheltered scheme in Cottesmore.
Tenants were invited to join Dave Scattergood
(from Spire’s contractor Apollo Group) and staff from Spire Homes
to celebrate the completion with an afternoon of mince pies and
refreshments. Katy Sagoe, Spire’s Director of Housing Services, and
Dave cut the ribbon with tenant Jean Freeman to mark the ‘opening’
of the new lift.
Spire Homes has spent nearly £600,000 on
installing the lift and improving the tenants’ flats and the
scheme’s communal areas. New kitchens and bathrooms were installed
in each flat, with tenants choosing the colours for both. They were
also given the option of having a wet-room or standard bathroom.
The communal laundry, kitchen and lounge areas were all refurbished
while PV panels and a new boiler were installed to improve the
scheme’s heating system and reduce the cost of energy bills. New
carpets and stair lifts were also fitted within the communal
areas.
Jody Brooker, the Project Surveyor who has
worked on this project, said: “There has been a lot of work
involved to improve and refurbish this scheme but it has been worth
it. The new lift is easy to use and will allow tenants to move
freely between the two floors, rather than having to share a stair
lift. Spire Homes will also benefit from the electricity
generated by the new PV panels, which will be sold back to the
National Grid and will hopefully allow us to reduce running costs
at the scheme.”