A North East hockey club has scored ahead of the 2024/25 season bully-off, thanks to a leading property builder.
Whitley Bay & Tynemouth HC has benefitted from a package of support from Newcastle-based affordable homes builder Adderstone Living, worth upwards of £10,000.
Thanks to the donation, the hockey club, which plays home matches at The Parks in Howdon Road, has gained new hockey sticks, pitch rope, outdoor goals, kit bags, a first aid kit and a defibrillator, together with repairs to the pitch dugouts.
An appreciative club coach Alison Gordon said: “We compete at a high level and provide a great centre for people to learn, develop and hone their hockey skills. This kind donation by Adderstone Living is greatly appreciated and will help our players to continue enjoying hockey at our amazing facility.”
Adderstone Living’s managing director Stephen McCoy added: “We wanted to invest in some community support in North Shields and saw this as a fantastic opportunity to help out the club, which is an integral part of the local sports scene. It’s great to hear that our assistance will keep hockey available in our community and provide opportunities for people to be involved at their local facility.”
The donation is Adderstone Living’s social value commitment from its partnership with local housing association Karbon Homes, through which it’s developing 22 three and four bed houses, and six one and two-bed apartments for the social housing provider, on the former Unicorn House office block site in North Shields.
Jessica Alexander, Karbon’s social value coordinator, said: “One of Karbon’s key aims is to create strong, sustainable places for our communities and one of the many ways in which we do this is through unlocking Social Value.
“We’re proud to work with contractors like Adderstone Living who share our ambitions to support the communities in which we work, and we’re grateful to them for the social value contributions they make that provide fantastic opportunities for local groups like Whitley Bay & Tynemouth HC.”
The ‘Laurel Mews’ development is part of North Tyneside Council’s ‘Ambition for North Shields’ initiative and the Fish Quay redevelopment. Homes will be available through a mix of shared ownership and rent to buy, a scheme through which rents for the properties are set at 20% less than local market rent. This offers residents the opportunity to save the difference for a deposit towards buying the home in the future.
Working with local authorities and housing associations, Adderstone Living’s ‘land-led’ solutions involve the sourcing of suitable land, scheme design and securing of planning permissions before delivering quality homes.