Nottingham City Homes says that the completion of a 106-house development will be delayed after the construction company working on it went bust and site workers "vanished." Some of those living near the site of a former primary school in Top Valley say it already "feels like ages" since the development started and hope that the collapse of Robert Woodhead Limited won't delay it significantly.
The Eastglade Primary and Nursery School closed in 2007 and plans were first revealed in 2019 to build 106 council houses on the site. The principal contractor on the site was Robert Woodhead Limited, which announced earlier this month that it had entered into voluntary liquidation, triggering mass redundancies and questions over several major projects being worked on by the company.
Following the announcement of the collapse, many living nearby said that they had noticed the building site becoming quieter recently. Simon Whysall, 34, said: "It feels like this has been going on for ages and obviously we had covid which wouldn't have helped, but I have noticed that it has been a bit quieter.
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"It is good that they're doing something with the site, but the "coming soon" sign on the perimeter fencing has been there for a long time now. Hopefully it'll be finished soon."
Marilyn Smith, 71, said: "I've had my dog since last March and so I've been taking him for walks around the area and I've seen this development progressing in that time. It has been very quiet in the last few weeks but even with this company going under, I hope it's not long before this is finished because it's a bit of an eyesore at the moment.
"There is another development that has just started not far from here and it's been that quiet that I thought Woodhead had actually moved its workers away from this one and to that one. All of my children went to the Eastglade School when that was on this site and so it will be nice when this development is finally done."
The project was originally due to be completed by next spring and Nottingham City Homes says that it is currently nearly two thirds finished. At the Top Valley building site on Tuesday (September 27), the only activity was the taking down of scaffolding and a visit from the security company in charge of it.
Many of the houses that have been put up still need windows and doors fitting in, alongside interior work, and the roads within the development also need to be finished. One of the houses also appears to have had its back windows smashed.
Derek Wilkinson, 82, who has lived in the area for around 45 years, said: "It has been very quiet and at some points last week it didn't look like there was anybody on the site at all, but that was perhaps because of the Queen's funeral. It has been a lot busier in the past on this site and Woodhead is obviously a very big company to go under - I was a painter and decorator years ago and so I did a lot of jobs with Woodhead.
"I do have some concerns about the development because I think some of the design work isn't very good and I think the roads could be a real problem. But this does need finishing because even the windows at the back of one of the new houses have been smashed now."
Julius Kika, 37, said: "There has definitely been a reduced activity on the site. I have been here since last May and when we first moved it was always very busy at the site and there were lots of vehicles coming and going, but in recent months and weeks that has reduced."
A resident living opposite some of the new houses who has been in the area for 47 years, and who did not want to be named, said: "I have seen the scaffolding coming down in recent days but other than that, I haven't really seen anything. They can't be taking it down because the work has finished, because it clearly hasn't.
"It was very strange really because the Woodhead people only recently started putting solar panels on the roofs, and they only managed a couple on the row near me and then everybody just vanished."
A spokesperson for Nottingham City Homes said: "Our Eastglade development is almost two-thirds complete and will provide 106 much-needed new homes for affordable rent in Top Valley. Works were on track to be finished by spring next year, and while the completion will now be slightly delayed, we remain committed to delivering these homes which will go to Nottingham people in housing need.
"We're working hard to make sure the completion date is as close as possible to the original and we've taken on some former Woodhead staff to help while the administrators liaise with the sub-contractors currently working on the development." Robert Woodhead Limited said it had gone into voluntary liquidation due to price increases throughout the supply chain.
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