Pupils at a Cumbrian school close to where a Broadacres’ affordable housing development is nearing completion have become the poster children for health and safety on building sites.

Children at Sedbergh Primary School were invited to take part in a health and safety design competition organised by Broadacres and its development partner Equans.

We are currently building 49 environmentally friendly homes off Station Road in Sedbergh, with the vast majority being offered for either affordable rent or shared ownership to people with a connection to the area.

The first homes are due to be handed over in June.

Broadacres and Equans have established links with Sedbergh Primary School and representatives from both organisations have been delivering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) & social value workshops for the students.

As part of this they launched a competition asking for children to design a health and safety poster which could be put up on the site, and this resulted in a fantastic 28 entries.

The poster designed by Olivia Ford was deemed the winner following judging by Broadacres and Equans at the school recently.

Olivia’s poster will now be blown up and put on the site.

Helen Fielding, Broadacres’ Director of Development & Investment, said: “We were very impressed with the work the children had put into their posters and choosing a winner was very difficult indeed.

“It has been great working with the school as part of our new development and helping the children understand everything involved in a development of this nature.

“It’s possible some will end up living in the new homes or being inspired to pursue a career in construction and development when they are older.”

Laura Bains, Social Value Manager at Equans, said: “All the pupils really got the brief and came back with some absolutely brilliant posters – it proved a very nice challenge to have to decide on just one overall winner!

“It’s great to see the pupils so engaged with learning about site safety and doing their bit to help educate others about staying safe around construction. While Equans does everything we can to keep the community surrounding our developments safe, we need the buy-in from everyone around and hopefully with Sedbergh Primary School’s pupils supporting us with our aims, we’ll maintain our high safety standards.”

The new development consists of a mix of two and three-bedroom houses and two-bedroom bungalows, as well as three four-bedroom and one five-bedroom home.

Of the 49 homes built, 34 will be for affordable rent and shared ownership, with people in Sedbergh and the surrounding communities being given first refusal on these properties. The other 15 homes will be for open market sale.

Helen added: “The demand for the homes has been very high and we have been keen from the outset to ensure local people get first preference as part of our strategy to ensure rural communities like this remain sustainable for future generations.”

There are a handful of shared ownership and open market sale plots still available. People interested in finding out more can click here. There is also an open house event taking place on Saturday 22^nd and Sunday 23^rd June from 10am to 5pm.