More news about other CLTs. We visited Hemyock today and met with people from the Upper Culm CLT. Hemyock is in the Blackdown hills, not far from Taunton, and is a little larger than Marshfield. Their CLT was formed in 2011 and their first development of affordable housing has won awards. They showed us round and it is very nice indeed – as you can see in the video below. They are now planning their second development.
It is interesting comparing notes with other CLTs. There are challenges we both have faced – like managing expectations and making sure that proposals meet with the approval of the community. There are some things that that went relatively easily for them but are not so easy for us – planning constraints on their village are much lighter than on Marshfield so site selection was easier. They also had a local developer who was trusted by the community and who helped in many ways. And there are some things that we have achieved that have not been so easy for them – like getting a good website up and getting the high numbers of people supporting us by becoming members.
One thing that surprises (and encourages) me is the growth in number of CLTs. The video clip, from a BBC Spotlight programme, shows how many CLTs there are in the far south-west. And here you can also see some of the CLTs affiliated to the UK-wide CLT umbrella group.
