Oxley Woods Living

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Posts Tagged ‘taylor wimpey’

 

Oxley Woods “a runaway success” says Wimpey…

November 15, 2011

Further indications that either Taylor Wimpey are prepared to commit to completing the award winning 145 home Oxley Woods development has arrived courtesy of Steve Rolt, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey South Midlands.

Either that, or further indications that Taylor Wimpey will say anything to anyone to suit their current position, telling the public one thing, and planning authorities, suppliers, residents and architects another. But surely they wouldn’t be so blatantly duplicitous, right?

So let’s accept this as great news worth celebrating!

In what appears to be a Taylor Wimpey endorsed press release, promoting the “last few remaining” (wait, what, they can’t count to 145, can they?!) homes at Oxley Woods published at Easier Property the aforementioned Steve Rolt, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey South Midlands, had the following to say:

Our high-quality new build homes in Milton Keynes at Oxley Woods have been a runaway success with style-conscious home-buyers looking for a truly special place to live.

These stunning properties in Milton Keynes are a design-led triumph, being created by the architects behind Paris’ iconic Pompidou Centre and London’s O2 Arena.

The article in general is well written and a lot of the positives certainly ring true, this place is, overall, a triumph and we adore living here.

But for Wimpey to wax lyrical on one hand while on the other telling current residents they can’t finish the site because of poor sales, higher costs and other issues, well you can draw your own conclusions as to what kind of company they are.

Furthermore, you can draw your own conclusions regarding those in positions of power who claim to support good environment, good neighbourhoods, and pioneering design on one hand, yet seem prepared to let Taylor Wimpey steam through with their plans to destroy a pioneering, award winning community with their only defence being higher profitability. It stinks, it really does.

So come on Steve Rolt, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey South Midlands, I call for you to join us and fight for the completion of Oxley Woods as planned, it’s clearly won your heart and backing, so help us change your company’s mind and get this site finished!

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Announcing new Oxley Woods homes for sale: Taylor Wimpey style

October 15, 2011

As Paul noted in his recent post, there are currently three new Oxley Woods homes under construction, which are now being offered for sale via the Taylor Wimpey website.

But until today I hadn’t seen any evidence of Taylor Wimpey promoting the homes for sale at all, at least not positively. More worryingly, I had received first hand insights from some prospective buyers that they were finding it really difficult to get any helpful information. (I’ll come back to this issue in a future blog post).

But in my inbox this morning was an email newsletter from Taylor Wimpey South Midlands. Normally I ignore the newsletter, having happily bought my home two years ago, but this time was different. The email was intriguingly titled “Only 3 plots left at this totally unique development”. It could only be Oxley Woods.

I opened the email, curious to see whether Taylor Wimpey might explain the ‘final’ nature of the three homes they are marketing. Instead, however, was a simple sales pitch. Let me take you through the different elements.

First things first – the text:

Not too much too argue with here, apart from the lack of attention to detail in the missing ‘s’ on Oxley Woods.

The development really is stunning, the design really is truly thoughtful and by world renowned architects, and the homes really are great value – a snip I would say.

But what comes next is more troubling. For if a picture paints a thousand words, what does this say about their marketing of Oxley Woods?

Seriously, is this the best image that they could find to promote the site to prospective purchasers?

There are a wealth of photos and design images available for the homes here at Oxley Woods, not least on Taylor Wimpey’s own website.

Why use something so poorly drawn as this? It’s not even an indicative sketch of the properties under construction, 2 of which are double-fronted homes, and all 3 of which are 3 storeys high. Oh, and 2 of them have roof terraces. And they all have views over the park from their front windows. And they are being built now so prospective owners should get in quick to be able to customise them during fit out. Where’s the hook to get people to want to look further?

Still, the email hadn’t finished. Perhaps I was too quick to criticise. I scrolled down, hoping I might see something more attractive. Perhaps a photo of one of the existing homes?

Wrong again. Some photos of other developments, and a random wall.

At least contact details are provided. But prospective buyers take note: the sales office is for the neighbouring site at Oxley Gate.

Let’s hope the sales staff have been provided with some better information than was on display in this marketing email.

{Guest post by Chris}

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Posted in Architecture, Oxley Woods Future | Comments Off

Last chance to buy?

October 8, 2011

Despite still promoting our Oxley Woods residence as a “145 home new build development” while simultanious trying to cowardly back out of their commitment to build said 145 homes — Taylor Wimpey have released the “final few” new homes on Oxley Woods for sale.  You can see more on the Taylor Wimpey website, or you can see the development (as it should be) on their own official website at OxleyWoods.com

We love it here, and buying into Oxley Woods shows a certain spirit and lifestyle choice that sets you apart from a regular new home buyer, and the neighbourhood, in terms of residents, amenities and natural environment is absolutely wonderful.

However, if you’d rather not support the duplicitous and downright uncaring Taylor Wimpey, there are a few wonderful homes for sale here from residents moving on. Pre-loved might be a nicer choice than un-wanted, and sadly Taylor Wimpey apparently want nothing to do with “Oxley Woods” anymore. Unless they’re trying to flog you a new home that is.

Here are some local properties available if you’re interested in something that’s been lived in and cared for for a while, rather than the above new homes.  Oxley Woods Property For Sale – Another Oxley Woods Property For Sale

Come along, have a poke around the estate, talk to residents, and maybe eventually you’ll be one too?

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Taylor Wimpey “unwilling to complete the build of the RSH&P homes”

April 1, 2011

We all knew it, despite claiming to appreciate and understand the residents of their very special development, Taylor Wimpey have confirmed in writing to residents that they are “unwilling to complete the build of the RSH&P homes”.

So then residents, English Partnerships (Homes and Communities Agency), ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister), RSH+P (Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners) RIBA, Manser Medal awards panel, Milton Keynes Partnerships, Milton Keynes Council, Innovative Housebuilder of the Year awards panel and everyone else who’s put their faith, their time, their money, their awards into Taylor Wimpey, the Oxley Woods development, the 60k homes (design for manufacture) competition, our community, all that this site apparently stood for. “Screw you”. That certainly appears to be the message from Wimpey. They’re not budging, and they are not willing to carry out the plans we all bought in to.

Dear Mr **********

Thank you for your email and attached letter. I appreciate you taking the time to write on behalf of your neighbours, and for responding within the timescales in my letter.

It was not our intention that only the two representatives would see the three options, I was planning to give the three options to the two representatives to distribute to and discuss with their community and then those two representatives would feed back the views of everyone to enable us to chose together which of the three option, or a combination of the three, would be progressed through planning. It is very difficult to design a site with a large number of people which is why I suggested two representatives.

Taylor Wimpey is unwilling to complete the build of the RSH&P homes for the reasons in my previous letter. We did want input from the existing residents before submitting a planning application. However it is now likely that Taylor Wimpey will choose which of the three designs to proceed with, and you will be able to make representation during the planning application in the usual way.

Regards

Stephanie

By the way, the “reasons stated” I’ll try to dissect at a later date. I believe there are more holes in their arguments than an old pair of fishnet stockings. They just want to maximise profits, and be damned anyone who doesn’t agree.

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Posted in Architecture, Eco living, Problems | Comments Off

Residents respond to Taylor Wimpey

March 31, 2011

Following Taylor Wimpey’s first direct communication regarding their plans to scrap the multi-award winning eco homes development at Oxley Woods, a number of residents held an impromptu meeting to discuss our response. A number of us already making it clear we wish to see the development completed as proposed by Wimpey, as awarded and as highly acclaimed by others.

The letter gained around more than 35 signatories in a number of days, and was emailed to Taylor Wimpey. The following is a word-for-word copy of the combined response to Taylor Wimpey.

Dear Ms Moffat,

RE: Oxley Woods

I write on behalf of the residents named below to provide a formal and collective response to your letter dated 23rd March.

We welcome the fact that your letter provides the first direct communication on the part of Taylor Wimpey regarding the future of the Oxley Woods site, albeit to a limited number of recipients. Please be assured that, as residents of this ‘truly innovative and outstanding development of sustainable homes’, we are keen to be involved in ensuring the successful completion of the site.

Following discussions amongst ourselves, we have however concluded that we cannot agree to your proposal for a two person committee to meet with you to identify a preferred alternative design to be pursued on the remaining undeveloped areas.

Given that the Oxley Woods development is of national significance, and that all of its residents have therefore been pioneers, we must underline that any consultation on the future of the site should be open to all residents. Any proposed changes in the design of the homes still to be built must be carefully considered within the context of the original aims of the project, the existing design and layout, and the overarching concept which residents bought into when they made the decision to live here.

It would therefore be inappropriate on our part for any of us to circumvent a full and proper consideration of the available options, either via an open public consultation or via a formal planning process. As such we will not be nominating representatives, nor seeking to view the revised alternative designs as per your proposal.

While we appreciate that the housing market has been difficult over recent years (indeed it has been a personally painful experience for a number of us), it is our belief that there would be sufficient demand for the remaining houses if they were to be completed as per the original design. Our own anecdotal experience is that, over the last couple of years, inquiries to the Oxley Woods sales office into the likely availability of homes in the undeveloped areas have been rebuffed rather than actively pursued as an indication of customer demand. More positively, we infer from the recent closure of the sales office that the remaining homes on Holden Avenue have now been sold, and understand that this is already the case for the three further homes that will soon be built by Wood Newton.

We must therefore reiterate our previous individual responses in support of the completion of the site as per the original RSH+P proposals, and respectively ask for this option to be reconsidered. If the site were to be completed in line with our original expectations we are confident that residents would be able to play an active role in promoting the site to potential homeowners. We would be pleased to discuss this possibility further.

Yours sincerely,

The undersigned

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