Oxley Woods Living

Been meaning to update the site more, but been busy. Bit like when Wood Newton and George Wimpey are supposed to carry out work on the houses in the neighbourhood.

Fortunately, nobody is booking days off work or rearranging their schedules while they wait for me to post my latest, usually depressing update about life in our Oxley Woods eco home. Whereas this is exactly what fellow residents, and ourselves, are having to do while they wait for workmen to turn up. Or not, as the case too commonly seems to be.

Having spoken to a number of our neighbours (“hello neighbours”) it seems our poor experience with after sales and fault fixing with George Wimpey and Wood Newton is far, far from exceptional. It seems people are, quite understandably, just giving up. The hassle to try and get work done is proving too wearing, too time consuming, and just too much hassle for many.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be, surely?! We’ve paid good money for our houses. We’re living on a multi-award winning scheme with a multi-award winning site manager, but people are struggling to get work done, struggling to know when their snagging and fault lists are going to be addressed, struggling to get any level of customer service from George Wimpey, and main sub-contractor/site builder Wood Newton.

Residents are suffering, or have suffered from, a number of issues. Right up to now it seems that new problems are coming to light in even the earliest properties built. The designs are changing as Wood Newton and George Wimpey build more homes (which makes sense, with a continual improvement programme), but residents who’ve already invested in this award winning housing scheme appear to be the last to know what is going on, IF they’re told at all.

Work not being done when promised is not the only problem. It seems that if certain residents can’t move their schedules to suit a window of opportunity presented by George Wimpey or Wood Newton on site (sometimes without prior notice), then it seems they’re shuffled towards the back of an increasingly growing pile of complaints and problems from fellow residents.

The more I speak to other residents the less exceptional our situation appears to be. It seems we’re in this together. This could be seen as depressing, as it makes it hard to find a glimmering light of hope, but in some ways, hopefully, it can bring the community together to act in each of our interests to make sure we’re looked after.

It’s a distraction, it’s actually traumatic for us, but hopefully some good can come of all of this for the community as a whole. The majority of people living here have chosen to live here. For their own purposes, be it the design, character, “eco friendly” traits of the buildings.

There are many more “run of the mill” alternatives that we could have chosen, but we chose to buy into this dream. Shame it’s turning into more of a nightmare for some us here at Oxley Woods.