I promised I would not whinge at the end of my week; today was the official opening of the four new bungalows at Abel Collins Almshouses on Derby Road Nottingham. I have blogged previously about the journey these bungalows have taken us on. But that is all in the past – and today was a celebration. A celebration of the first new homes on the site being built since the 1980′s.

The Sheriff of Nottingham, Councillor Leon Unczur and his Lady Adela Hampson officially opened the bungalows and handed the new keys to four residents. All were keen to show Leon and Adela their new homes.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather and the general feeling around the homes was fantastic. Back in the Hall, I gave a small speech about the history of the Charity and the legacy – which started 300 years ago!

My thanks were extended to the Board of Trustees, the staff on site and the professional team – Julian, Joe, Mike, Steve and Guy at Marsh Growchowski Architects, Lois Plaistow at Price & Myers Engineers, Tony Harris at D H Squire M&E consultants and Charlie Smith at Appleyard & Trew Quantity Surveyors. But also to Nicholas Bird at Birds of Derby for donating the biggest and best cake I have seen for some time! I couldn’t manage all of it.

Leon spoke about the new bungalows not in terms of bricks and mortar (actually there’s not much of that!), but rather of the care with which they had been designed. When I first showed him the bungalows – he actually said ‘wow’ and later said he was ‘bowled over’.

I have said before that the real test is when our residents have moved in and are living there. I think they will love their new homes. I would be happy to live there!

It really was a great day – and a milestone in the history of the Charity, I think Abel Collin would be proud – I certainly am. It has been a challenging project, but worth it. I love the architecture – it is different – but you can be of no doubt as to the fact that it belongs to this time.

Now what shall we do next?…..