This month’s catch up from Mel our CEO, who shares an update about our Community Led Housing project at Turner Gardens Gateway.
Back in 2018 LNT were busy surveying the community in Lockleaze, asking more than 700 people what mattered to them. One of the big things people said was that they wanted better quality, well designed social housing that suited their evolving needs. You can see what they said here in the One Lockleaze Community Plan 2019-2024.
As the Community Hub in Lockleaze, we knew we had to act. We started a Community-Led Housing project, with a Steering Group made up of over 50% local residents, trustees, and a range of people with professional build environment experience.
Over a series of workshops and a Lockleaze Housing Festival in 2019 we asked people about the kind of housing they wanted to see. With the help of Barefoot Architects, and with the promise of a Community Land Transfer from Bristol City Council, local residents co-designed the buildings that would be built on this vacant land, sticking to some key values here.
In 2021 we submitted a planning application for two parcels of land either side of Turner Gardens access road on Constable Road. A Full Planning application for 19 affordable homes was submitted. A link to the planning application is available here. The scheme was agreed at the end of June 2022 and the summer of 2025, we gained final planning permission for the site. That’s how slowly the planning process turns…
Meanwhile, new housing was beginning to rocket up all over Lockleaze. But LNT kept our faith in our community-led approach. We’ve had to raise a lot of housing grants to make sure the design reflected community needs, and to transfer the land from the Council. It also became clear that without more grant funding and in a volatile housing market, LNT would not be able to deliver the project themselves. Like other schemes in Southmead and Lawrence Weston, LNT trustees finally decided in July 2024 that we would seek a Housing Association to deliver the project. We just had to get those community-led homes built.
And here we are in March 2026. Thanks to Abri Housing Association, Bristol City Council and many other experts, partners and supporters, we are now able to say that 18 new homes will be built on Constable Road later in 2026. They will all be social housing, and the Lockleaze Local Lettings Policy will apply to all the homes. And they were all designed by our community.
So on Thursday April 9, we’re holding a Lockleaze Community-Led Housing Update Meeting at the Hub on Gainsborough Square, 6-730pm. Come and hear about:
- What the final design will look like.
- What the timeline is for the build.
- How our Lockleaze Lettings Policy works.
There will be a Q&A with our LNT team including our Housing Manager Tom Beale, and representatives from Abri and Bristol City Council. And of course, there will be tea, coffee and cake. We look forward to seeing you all there.