Announcing a new Chair
At our last Trustee meeting Chris McEwen formally retired as our Chairman. Chris has been Chairman since the inception of EB CLT. His vision to provide affordable homes for those with a strong village connection inspired others and he pioneered the establishment and setting up of our not for profit company. Calm, cheerful, determined and focused, he oversaw the lengthy formalities to establish the company, recruit the first Trustee team, identify finance and forge all important links with key partner organisations. Frustratingly for Chris his earnest efforts to deliver sites suitable for building affordable housing have been undermined because of the difficulty in finding available suitable land, something he feels personally disappointed about. Chris is now looking forward to taking a back seat as a Trustee and having more time to commit to his other interests. He remains a committed supporter of EB CLT and his extensive knowledge will remain available to us. The Trustees wish to thank Chris for piloting the CLT from an idea to a fully fledged company poised to deliver its first affordable housing.
We are delighted that new Trustee Nigel Downton has been appointed as Chairman by the Board. Nigel has lived in the village since 2004 and brings a wealth of experience in building, residential development and information and communications technology. Now retired from active involvement in development, Nigel is keenly committed to our community and intends to use his background and experience to lead the Board in delivering the much needed affordable housing for the village.
With a new Chairman comes new opportunities and the CLT will again be reviewing all land suitable for affordable housing development throughout the village. Now the two major large scale developments have been approved other landowners will be approached in the hope that the plight of the dozen young people and families on our housing needs register, desperate for affordable housing in the village, will encourage offers of land or redundant buildings for the sensitive, small scale, community owned housing we plan to deliver.
In the meantime we will continue to explore every opportunity to hand and actively seek new opportunities that have the potential to bring forward the required new housing for members of our community that cannot be potentially catered for by the private sector or registered social landlords.