Local School Children Get Hand-On As Greener Gardens Project Continues To Grow In North Lanarkshire
As part of our continued commitment to the Greener Gardens project, we have teamed up with Abertay University and Global Professional Services Consultant WSP to offer a learning package which is aimed at Primary 5 children to highlight raingardens, sustainable drainage and the environment.
Pupils from Holytown Primary School in Holytown, North Lanarkshire are the first to benefit from the educational resources with a series of classroom talks and discussions, interactive activities and local show and tell visits in the community to learn more about the concept of Greener Gardens.
The children’s day included a visit to Taylor Wimpey West Scotland’s Torrance Park development in Holytown to see the Torrance Water project features in-situ which includes a natural raingarden, a raised raingarden, water butts and a suds-in-box as well as a visit to the Ravenscraig BRE site.
James Travers, associate at WSP with children from Primary Five, Holytown Primary understanding the benefits of water butts at Taylor Wimpey West Scotland’s Torrance Park development in Holytown.
Torrance Park - Phase 2
As part of our continued commitment to Torrance Park in Holytown, we are delighted to confirm that we are one of the build partners for phase two of the development.
Displayed below is the phase two master plan, alongside our current development at Torrance Park.
For more information about phase 2, please click here.
Greener Garden Project aims to grow in North Lanarkshire
Part of an innovative project that will provide free water butts to 80 new homes
As Scotland sees 2016 as the opportunity to focus on Innovation, Architecture and Design, we have been working in partnership with the Scottish Government, Central Scotland Green Network Trust and academia on an innovative ’Greener Gardens’ project - that looks at how gardens of new homes can be used to contribute to green infrastructure, biodiversity and storm water management.
The project features a number of strands - all designed to encourage the development of sustainable places – including installation of demonstration raingardens, academic research, provision of water butts as part of the package for new homeowners, and raising awareness by promoting the benefits of raingardens both to homeowners and the wider house building industry.
Whilst the research takes place, to encourage homeowners to get involved and to highlight the importance that Greener Gardens will play in the future, Taylor Wimpey West Scotland, Scottish Government and CSGNT have joined forces to provide and install a free 200 litre water butt to the first 80 new homes at the Torrance Park development. These will act as a visible reminder to residents about the need to be more aware of water use and how little changes can have a big impact on the environment.
Cabinet Minister for Local Government and Housing Kevin Stewart visited the development to find out more about the project from the partners involved, and met some of the primary three children from Holytown Primary who will be learning more about raingardens, sustainable drainage and the environment.
Family Fun Day at Torrance Park
Our family fun day at Torrance Park was great fun with loads to do for our visitors. Our magician, clown, face-painters, balloon modeller and large garden games kept loads of families amused as we enjoyed some rare North Lanarkshire sunshine – the perfect showcase for ideal family living. However the real stars of the show were our own Handy Andy and Millie Mortar who made their Scottish debut and were an instant hit.
Our slap band donation reflects our support for walk to school month!
Children from Holytown Primary and Nursery aim to be seen on their walk to school.
We are helping to shine a light on the importance of leaving the car at home and walking to school this autumn, and we’re supporting Walk to School Month, which takes place every October and encourages parents to walk their children to school instead of travelling by car.
We have provided 150 slap bands to encourage primary one and two pupils at Holytown Primary in Holytown to walk to school – and help keep them safe on the journey. It is part of a campaign that will see us provide more than 12,000 slap bands to children across the country.
Audrey Ross, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey West Scotland, says: “We are committed to supporting the communities in which we build our high-quality new homes, which is why we are working in partnership with Holytown Primary in Holytown as part of Walk to School Month.
“We understand that family life can be busy, but walking to school is one of the easiest ways for children to increase their level of physical activity and get fit. We hope our contribution will help inspire families to swap the car for a safe walk to school instead.”
Fiona Carson, depute head teacher at Holytwon Primary, says: “We encourage the children to walk to school to promote a healthier lifestyle and to reduce traffic outside the school. We are very grateful to Taylor Wimpey for this generous donation which will help us to raise awareness among pupils and parents alike of how important it is to be seen by road users when walking.”
Walk to School Month is an annual nationwide campaign that promotes the benefits of walking to school, which results in healthier young people and less traffic on the roads.
We Lead the Way in Business at Brannock High School in North Lanarkshire
As part of our ongoing commitment to the local communities of North Lanarkshire, we were delighted to make a key contribution to this year’s business awareness programme for senior year pupils at Brannock High School near Motherwell with a presentation and interactive workshop led by members of our regional business team from Paisley.
With several developments of new homes being built across the local area, including Torrance Park in Holytown, Taylor Wimpey is keen to connect with local schools and communities on a number of levels and to play their role within the communities in which it builds.
Stephen Andrew, Associate Technical Director comments: “We really enjoyed having the opportunity to share our experience of the housebuilding industry as part of this year’s business awareness course at Brannock High School.
“As well as a general overview of the house building industry and how it works, we created an interactive session for the students to take a closer look at the various disciplines within our business model and we hope this will help them to apply the theory they learn this year to the real business world.”
Jack Drummond, Commercial Director adds: “I hope that our session has helped the students to develop their understanding of the wider business world and how they can play a future role in it. We’re always looking for fresh talent to join our industry and sessions like this give us the opportunity to remind students of the wealth of possibilities that are available if you consider a career in house building.”
Clive Gibb, Faculty Head for Technologies at Brannock High School adds: “We were delighted to welcome the team from Taylor Wimpey into our school for what was a very informative session, as part of a full day of learning about the business of house building. This was a great opportunity for our students to consider how business really works and the decisions that companies like Taylor Wimpey make on a daily basis.
“Having relationships like this with the business community helps us to keep our teaching relevant and interesting for our students, and I’d like to thank the team from Taylor Wimpey for their input.”
13 May, 2015
We give a lesson in safety to Holytown Primary
As work begins on the construction of our Torrance Park development in Holytown, members of the team gave the local children of Holytown Primary School some reminders about health and safety.
We are keen to promote the dangers associated with playing near any construction site and raise awareness of the children’s need to be extra vigilant as the construction of the first phase of 131 new homes at Torrance Park in Holytown is now in full swing.
Being proactive with local schools has proven an effective deterrent in the past as Brian Henderson, Production Manager explains: “Health and safety in and around our construction areas is of vital importance to us, and taking this type of proactive approach with local schools allows us to reinforce just how important it is for children to stay away from building sites.
“Our lesson plan is delivered by our Health & Safety consultants and allows us to promote a very important message in a fun and interactive way. Having the chance to chat to the children in school serves as the perfect reminder for the children that building sites are not playgrounds!”
Lynne Brennan is head teacher for Holytown Primary School: “I was delighted to welcome Taylor Wimpey into our school to highlight the dangers associated with children playing near any construction site. Given their development of new homes is fairly close to our school, and we will have a significant amount of construction work in the local area for some time, this proactive engagement with our children is very important.
“It’s great that Taylor Wimpey understands the importance of our children’s safety, and has created such an interactive and proactive approach to appeal to our pupils.”