Work on North Stoneham Park’s new nursery and community centre begins!

Construction of the new nursery and community centre that will sit at the heart of North Stoneham Park is now underway and marks a significant phase in the development’s build programme. Construction of the new facilities is scheduled for completion this winter and both the nursery and community centre will open shortly afterwards. Highwood is building the new centre, which will be run by YMCA and owned by Eastleigh Borough Council and will serve all 1100 new homes that will make up the North Stoneham Park development.

The centre will comprise a café, sports hall, youth room, health space and meeting rooms while the nursery will provide 95 childcare places, including essential early years care for children aged 0-5 years and offer a sustainable income stream to fund the wider community centre.

Highwood Managing Director, Guy Hayward, praised the formidable partnership that is delivering the new facilities: ‘Thanks to our close collaboration with Eastleigh Borough Council and the facility managers, YMCA, these new community spaces will represent a landmark in the Park’s development,’ he said. ‘They’ll not only help to bring people together and showcase the best building design, notably our use of sustainable building materials and environmentally-sensitive technologies.’

Engaging and supporting the whole community

As the first diggers arrived on site, Judy Hillier, Chair of YMCA said ‘this marks an exciting moment for the new community of North Stoneham Park. The YMCA wants to support its emerging community and this building will offer a place to meet others with programmes and classes to engage and support the whole community. The nursery will provide a nurturing environment for our youngest children, developing early skills whilst also enabling parents to go to work. We’ll also be creating around 25 new jobs for people in the centre.’

Cllr Paul Bicknell, Cabinet Member for Regeneration also praised the forward-thinking collaboration: ‘North Stoneham is an important new community and Eastleigh Council is committed to supporting initiatives which allow it to flourish and engage the local people,’ he said.

Enquiries for nursery space or use of the community facilities are now being taken by YMCA – please email eastleigh@ymca-fg.org to find out more or visit www.ymca-fg.org\eastleigh.

Pictured above: (left to right) Cllr Paul Bicknell, Cabinet Lead for Regeneration at Eastleigh Borough Council, Guy Hayward, Managing Director, Highwood Group and Judy Hillier, YMCA Chair.