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Architect Charles Scott from Sheppard Robson, explains the plans for Eustace Crescent, in Wokingham, to resident Denise Phillips
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Pleas to change the name of Eustace Crescent as designs for new estate are launched

By Jon Nurse
February 08, 2013

Pleas to change the name of a stigmatised estate were made as designs for the revamped ‘flagship community’ went on display.

Eustace Crescent residents urged the council to start over with its reputation when they viewed the plans at a drop-in session last Wednesday.

Georgia Watts, of Eustace Crescent, said: “It’s got such a stigma – when something happens people say it is Eustenders. It isn’t that bad but when people hear the name they say ‘what an awful area’.

“It [the designs] looks very good and it’s really needed. It hasn’t got as many flats which is better because one of my neighbours said living in there is like living in a goldfish bowl.”

The three and four-storey blocks of flats, nicknamed ‘Useless Crescent’, will soon be demolished and the revamp is expected to take around 18 months to complete.

Plans to transform Eustace Crescent into 'flagship community'

Jane Howard, 48, of Eustace Crescent, added: “We want it renamed. Everyone is saying it.

“They’ve mentioned a shared equity scheme which is such a good idea. People will respect it more and not expect to be given everything.”

Architect Charles Scott said: “Let’s start afresh. This is a new community in an exemplar affordable housing scheme.

“When you walk in there in the future it will feel more like individual houses than an estate. Every house has a garden and we are retaining the central space for community use.”

Denise Phillips, 54, of Eustace Crescent, also believes the name should be changed.

She added: “I think this will be a vast improvement. There is a parking problem at the moment and it looks like it’s going to be a bit tight. I hope there will be plenty of trees and landscaping so it doesn’t look too harsh.”

Stuart Rowbotham, Wokingham Borough Council’s strategic director for health and wellbeing, said: “Most people are of the view Eustace Crescent may have been a little overbuilt. Now it looks a little incongruous with these blocks of flats in the middle of a low-rise residential area. That’s been compounded with problems with the flats’ maintenance and drainage.

“We want this to look stunning, with the right mix of green space [and] gardens. There will be a slightly lower density because we think there were mistakes with the previous development. We are contemplating things like self-building, where people have a part equity share in the house itself. We want there to be a good mix of community cohesion with a sense of ownership.”

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Hi wokinghamworker! Hope you are well.

To a degree this is already done in affordable housing allocation in new developments (I think it is around the 25% mark for developments of a certain size).

However, there is the issue that not only would Eustace Crescent residents require new homes, but there is the existing massive housing waiting list and general lack of affordable and social housing everywhere in the country. Therefore I'd say that both would really need to be done.

There are so many people in their late teens / early twenties starting their careers, with no hope of getting on the housing ladder in Wokingham unless they earn 2-3x the national average wage in Wokingham and have a sizeable deposit (God knows how that would be saved). Having recently done some analysis into the Wokingham demographics, we see in Wokingham an enormous dip in representation of the 20-34 year age groups compared to the national average. This no doubt has several factors (such as there is arguably less to do for this age group than say mature families and the older generations), but I'm sure cost of housing is also a major factor in that. There are certainly the job opportunities in abundance available in nearby towns.

alex_f, Wokingham
10/02/2013 at 17:38

We are building all of these new houses in Wokingham, but why can't the Council use a few of these many new developed homes as Social Housing and that will solve the problem of re-housing the residents of Eustace Crescent. This issue is simply a matter of common sense, it's a matter of putting the people of Wokingham before big corporations that want to over develop and destroy our town. The best solution to this issue is via restoring common sense into local politics. Hence this is why, when the Contemporary Marxist Party get active in Wokingham in the next few years, we will have simple solutions to all of these problems because we will challenge the status quo and restore common sense politics into the local area by starting to bail out local people instead bailing out Councillors, MP's and big corporations.