Thakeham’s flagship development in Woodgate, Pease Pottage will benefit from a brand-new Community Hub.

The community hub is now under construction and will include a village store, café and meeting rooms which will be managed as a true community business, guaranteeing its longevity as a crucial service to residents and locals a like.

A budding partnership

Keen to get local residents involved from the start, Thakeham and the Plunkett Foundation hosted a number of webinars earlier this year to share the plans for this new hub. From these early discussions, a committed group of volunteers from the local community have stepped up to have a say in how the Hub will be managed and while Plunkett and Thakeham will be on hand to help every step of the way, this is a project that will be truly community-led. 

“Everyone is really looking forward to having a hub for the families in the local area, including from around the development. Being able to have a say in what this place will look like and how it will be run is fantastic.”

Community Steering Group

The recently-formed Community Steering Group went a tour of their Woodgate Community Hub, that is currently under construction.

Rob Boughton, CEO of Thakeham, said:

As a community creator, building a facility that will be genuinely community-led at Woodgate is a great milestone. We are so proud of the work we are doing with the Plunkett Foundation to support community businesses, creating a first for what placemaking can look like.

The Plunkett Foundation

The Plunkett Foundation helps rural communities UK-wide to tackle the issues they face, through promoting and supporting community business. Community businesses are enterprises that are owned and run democratically by members of the community and others, on behalf of the community.

Thakeham and Plunkett share a vision of creating vibrant, resilient and sustainable places to live and work by empowering communities through community business. Together, we want to help communities, help themselves through providing help and support to explore the community business model.

Woodgate

The Woodgate development is a joint venture between Thakeham Group and Abri. The 45-hectare site is located off Parish Lane to the south of Crawley.

Woodgate includes 619 new homes, a shop and a coffee shop, a community pavilion, a village green and parklands. The development will also provide a home for locally based charity, St Catherine’s Hospice.

More information about Woodgate, including infrastructure and the wide range of community facilities, is available at www.mywoodgate.co.uk