We have no interest in being a rule bound community, but we do want to make it easy for us to be good neighbours to each other and to be active and positive members of the wider community in Wisewood. We have adopted a number of agreements and policies to assist this, as informed by the experiences of existing cohousing communities. These policies will be reviewed on a schedule, to allow for further learning. We strive to be fair to all, and have a commitment to the health and well-being of all our members.
Living well with each other
The policies, agreements or tenancy rules that we work on together will appear here once agreed. We work hard to enable everyone’s voice to be heard during decision-making – including the voices of the children in the community.
Policies
Community Agreements
Living well with our neighbours in the local area
We are aware of the disruption and inconvenience that was caused over the course of the build. We organised on-site meetings for local residents and stakeholders to give them an opportunity to raise concerns with us. We also dropped letters off in the neighbouring streets to explain who we are and how to contact us. Here’s an update flyer we made for neighbours. We have attended local community events such as the opening of the new playground for Wisewood. We were active members of the campaign to restore local bus services.
We are still keen to keep in touch with neighbours in the local area. This is our Community Engagement Strategy and Plan. You can contact us by text or email to be kept in touch. We also hold several open days each year at which visitors are welcome.
We are in touch with councillors, residents’ associations, and projects such as the planned community garden and Loxley Community Farm.
Caring for the local environment
We are committed to caring for our environment both on-site and immediately around us. We are committed to respecting the ecology survey completed in relation to our planning application and have already taken steps for attracting and protecting local wildlife. More to do, of course. We are participants in local litter picking campaigns, tree planting and the nearest community garden. We are consulting local and Council representatives regularly.