Wokingham Borough Council’s state-of-the-art refuge for local homeless families has been named Best Residential Development in an annual Berkshire-wide awards.

The team attended the Royal Berkshire Property Awards on October 18 where they also picked up the highly commended Best Low Carbon Project.

Grovelands Park was created to give families awaiting permanent housing a safe and comfortable place to live.

The accommodation consists of 23 two-bedroom timber-clad units, arranged in two stories with their own entrances.

The first phase, consisting of six units, was built last year and occupied shortly before Christmas, while the rest are on track for occupation by the end of this year.

This eco-friendly temporary housing scheme was completed by Edgingtons Achitects and building specialists Rollalong.

The temporary housing was created to offer cost-effective alternatives to more expensive forms of temporary accommodation like bed and breakfast placements.

Leader of Wokingham Borough Council, Cllr Stephen Conway has expressed his thanks to everyone involved in the project.

He said: “It's an honour to receive this award and I'd like to thank everyone involved in this project, from our own hard-working teams to our equally capable and dedicated contractors.

“Homelessness, or the threat of it, is a deeply distressing experience so we're proud to be providing high-quality accommodation that allows our residents to stay close to the places where they work, attend school and have friends and relatives.

“By offering a safe and welcoming refuge, and alleviating at least some of the stress, we hope they'll find it less challenging to contemplate their next steps as they seek a more permanent home.”

Director at Edgingtons Architects, Richard Parsons attended the event alongside Wokingham Borough Council. He explained: “We are delighted to be sharing the award for the Best Residential Development at this year’s Royal Berkshire Property Awards with Wokingham Borough Council and our delivery partners.

“It's a great project with invaluable social impact, providing vulnerable families with energy efficient, high quality temporary accommodation and helping them to turn their lives around.”

The company was also named ‘Best Architects’ at the awards.