Community share offer launched by Bridport Cohousing

The 53 eco homes project, which is being developed by Bridport Cohousing for local people, will go by the name of ‘Hazelmead'. It is being built by C G Fry on seven acres of land to the west of Bridport Community Hospital.

Work on the site began earlier in the year and is scheduled to be completed in early summer 2022.

To complete its final round of fundraising Bridport Cohousing is launching a community share offer to the public via investment platform, Ethex. Supporters will be able to invest their money into the community-led project with the aim of receiving a good financial return - currently targeted at four per cent per annum.

Through the offer, the organisation is hoping to raise £732,000. It will use the money to help fund the completion of the development by constructing a common house which would provide a hub for the community, complete with a dining room, kitchen for shared meals, a laundry room and a space that can be hired out to the public for workshops and classes, as well as enjoyed by residents.

Members of Bridport Cohousing at West Bay Picture: Bridport Cohousing

The funding would also pay for two guest rooms to provide short term accommodation for visiting friends and relatives and pay back some outstanding loans that enabled us to buy the phase 2 land back in 2018.

Community shares - which are also known as withdrawable share capital - allow people to invest in an enterprise that aims to benefit their community and hopefully see some return on their investment.

Lorna Dee Johnson, member of Bridport Cohousing and future resident of Hazelmead, said: “We’re thrilled. This is the only way we can realistically achieve our ambition of living sustainably.

"It will be wonderful to live in a real community with young people around us, as well as to have that balance between shared living and our own private space. It's an amazing group of people.”

The idea of a cohousing neighbourhood is to give each household its own self-contained private home as well as a shared community space, as a way to counter feelings of isolation and recreating the neighbourly support of years passed.

The organisation has successfully raised money within the community before. In 2018 it raised £250,000 in just a few weeks in order to buy the phase two land.

Bridport Cohousing now has 56 members - and 25 children - of all ages and backgrounds, and are still actively recruiting new members who want to live at Hazelmead.

To find out more visit https://bridportcohousing.org.uk