Even the long grass in the front gardens of the homes has stopped growing.
There’s no one around to cut it back, so it grew like topsy before turning brown in the parched conditions of the 2022 summer drought.
It sways in the stifling breeze behind wire fencing on the spot where, for decades, children played, parents grew flower beds or got the mower out every other Sunday.
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But now, there is no one to tend to the gardens of Hampton Close. There are no kids’ bikes left on the steps up to the front door, no trampolines in the back gardens, no curtains in the windows.
This cul-de-sac of 18 homes have steel doors and perforated silver boards across every window. If someone stumbled up Hampton Close by mistake they’d be forgiven for thinking the apocalypse had arrived, or something out of 28 Days Later, only the residents were very well prepared.
Out on what generations of Hampton Close residents referred to as the ‘main road’, Newton Road, there are six more homes in a similar state - with shiny metal windows and heavy metal doors. For people travelling from the heart of Banjo Island’s community hubs of the Juice and the Co-op and the Lamb pub, to the main road that rings this corner of Cadbury Heath, these six homes on either side of Newton Road seem a bit odd. Up around the corner and into the cul-de-sac of Hampton Close, it’s a ghost street.
But now, finally, there is new hope for the community who are living around the street that was shut down, after years of gradual and managed decline.
The story of Hampton Close
The first people in Hampton Close knew that something like this might one day happen was back in the early 2010s, more than ten years ago.
Rumours began to circulate that the housing association that owned most of the homes on Hampton Close had the idea that they could demolish the homes and rebuild more in their place, and then, in March 2013, it became official - albeit still only as an idea.
Back then, every resident received a letter from the Merlin Housing Society, a subsidiary of the bigger Bromford Housing Group, a housing association with thousands of homes across South Gloucestershire and Bristol.
The letter was an ‘initial demolition notice’, and it made it clear that, not now but one day in the future, the home would be demolished.
They were told, if they didn’t know full well already, that their houses were ‘Cornish homes’ - built of concrete using non-traditional construction. They weren’t, Merlin explained, fit for the 21st century. There’s issues with the concrete, you can’t make them very energy efficient or insulated. Merlin, and Bromford, had taken the decision that, ultimately, it would be better for everyone concerned if, rather than trying and struggling to keep them fit to be lived in, they would eventually be demolished and better - and more - homes built there instead.
For almost four years, nothing much happened. Then, in November 2016, Bromford sent another letter around to reassure people that nothing was imminent, and to continue as normal.
It was another two and a bit years, in January 2019, that what had been a long-term future idea, became an imminent reality.
Everyone living in Hampton Close, and the homes actually on Newton Road that formed part of the plan, was told they would be contacted individually to find out what their needs were, what their thoughts about the plan were and, crucially, whereabouts they might want to move to.
Noreen Twomey is the project manager at Bromford. She said they had a huge variety of responses from the people who had lived there, some for decades.
“Some people wanted to move somewhere locally, some people took the opportunity to move somewhere else within South Gloucestershire, or maybe move to a smaller property that was more suitable for them,” she said. “Some people moved away from the area altogether, and we were able to assist with their wishes. The key thing was that we talked to every household and got to know them, and assessed what they wanted and what they felt was best for them.”
After six years of having the future issue ahead of them, 2019 saw things move quickly. That Initial Demolition Notice of 2013 was due to expire on March 11, 2020, and Bromford began moving people out of the street.
By the November 2019, some of the homes were already empty, and those left living there, awaiting the kind of home they wanted to move to, had the eerie feeling of being surrounded by empty homes.
And that wasn’t all, the homes vacated attracted people who knew they were empty and were up to no good. The remaining residents began to complain about people getting into the empty homes, and were given a hotline of a mobile phone number to call if they saw anyone sneaking around. That winter, the first silver screens were fitted to the windows and the fencing put around the empty properties.
Then, the Covid pandemic hit, and Hampton Close was a half-empty street of ghost houses and residents left in limbo.
It wasn’t until December 2020 that Bromford finally published the plans of what they actually wanted to do when they demolished the homes on Hampton Close - the cul-de-sac would be cleared, and the homes across the road, and the garages out the back that were actually used by the residents of Earlstone Crescent, one of the cul-de-sacs that back on to Hampton Close.
And replacing them would be more than 40 new homes, a mix of flats and houses for families, couples and single people.
After the informal consultation period, planning permission was submitted to South Gloucestershire Council in February 2021 - some two years after the residents were told ‘this is it now’, and began to move out.
The initial plan didn’t include nos. 1 and 2 Hampton Close, which front onto Newton Road. One of these semi-detached linked homes was privately-owned and, faced with the prospect of an empty road behind them and then a building site, the homeowner took up the offer from Bromford to buy their home. That freed up the house next door, and suddenly every home in Hampton Close was to be demolished and, with the ones on Newton Road, meant a total of 24 homes would be gone for good.
The plans were changed and made more ambitious. The extra space meant five new homes for the project. Now with the extra land, the 24 homes would be replaced by 44 new homes. They would be eight one-bed flats, 18 two-bed houses, 16 three-bed homes and two four-beds. There would be 86 parking spaces for the 44 new homes.
All the homes would be classed as ‘affordable’, and the vast majority would be let at ‘social rent’.
The change meant more delays, though. From the first plan being submitted to the new plan meant the plans remained being discussed at South Gloucestershire Council for the whole of 2021, and into 2022.
By April this year, local residents were told that Bromford were still awaiting planning permission being granted, which would mean that, finally, the homes could be demolished. While there was little local opposition to the plan - everyone who lived there has now moved out - people living in the surrounding streets, particularly Earlstone Crescent, were not happy their garages were being included, and most of the objections related to this.
Now, finally, there is good news - some three and a half years since the residents of Hampton Close were told they would be moving out.
Planning permission has finally been granted, albeit with section 106 agreements being signed between the council and the housing association, and things like a bat survey being completed. It could be possible, that Banjo Island will see work start this year on its ghost street.
“It has taken a long time, and there have been a number of reasons for that,” said Noreen. “We got a bit delayed by the pandemic and then redrawing the plans when the two remaining homes became part of the plan. At the moment, we’ve got ecology issues to complete, but hopefully people should start to see something happening at the end of the year,” she added.
If work begins this year to demolish Hampton Close, work to start building a new community of 44 new homes will begin in 2023. But will any of the Hampton Close residents be coming back to live in the new homes?
“They were given that option, but none of them have expressed a wish to, no,” said Noreen. “We worked hard to find places they wanted to move to.”
The gardens are past being unkempt but even though no one will be coming or going any time soon, there is one regular visitor who still calls in to Hampton Close - the council's road maintenance crews, who still cut the little grass strips alongside the pavements and keep the gutters clear.
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