The Church Grove Project Board is made up of RUSS Board members, community leaders and technical advisors with specialisms in the built environment and housing management, led by an independent Chair. Meetings are attended by RUSS’s Client Rep and the Church Grove appointed construction manager, the Employer’s Agent. Our broad range of skills and experience is our strength.
We are committed to ensure the RUSS Church Grove Project becomes a reality, with a lasting positive legacy for future residents and the wider community.
The Project Board acts as client and provides oversight for the project, with delegated authority from the main Board of Trustees. The Project Board supports the work of the Client Rep and working groups on Housing Management, Resident Self Build and the Community Hub.
What have we been doing in 2021-22?
Driven by Dinah Roake (Operations Director to early 2022, now Client Representative for Church Grove), and working with RUSS’s professional team, the Project Board has been putting everything in place to start on site in October 2021. This has included:
- assessing project risk and strategies for mitigating risk,
- scrutinising budgets and schedules,
- engaging in design development with architects and professional consultants, working towards our successful application to Lewisham Council for a Minor Material Amendment to the planning permission granted in 2018,
- feeding in to detailed design work for the tender package for the building contract. This has included everything from delivering metre square samples of building materials to Lewisham Planning officers to discussing the design of bike sheds and flush systems,
- securing grants and loan funding, alongside carrying out the due diligence for these with legal advisors
- entering into a two-stage Design & Build construction constract with ROOFF
- engaging with key stakeholders in Lewisham and the wider field of community housing. This has included public meetings on Zoom, producing printed information and updates by letter and email.
- developing the self-build strategy with future residents and appointing a self-build manager
- developing a housing management strategy, and putting in place housing management and maintenance policies and procedures
- preparing information packs about the flats for sale and for rent
- taking RUSS through the construction phase and into the sales and lettings phase, leading to future residents getting their keys and moving in.
Join us!
We are actively looking for people with skills, energy and experience in residential projects or affordable housing to join us on the Project Board.
Do you have experience in managing and maintaining mixed tenure housing, high quality care of building assets, writing and managing leases or helping an organisation to implement housing management and maintenance policies and procedures? Or know someone who does? We’d love to talk to you about any help you can offer, whether it is a few hours of pro bono advice or more regular involvement over the coming 12 months. Contact eleanor@theruss.org
The Church Grove Project Board 2022
The RUSS Board of Trustees has appointed Eleanor Margolies, Dwayne Officer, Becca Antink and Ben Beck to the Church Grove Project Board. Other technical advisors and volunteers attend to support the scrutiny and delivery of the Project Board’s outputs.
Members (in alphabetical order)
Daniel Hugill works as a secondary school teacher working in East London. He has previously served as Chair of a national teacher subject association working to support the subject community and lobbying stakeholders to support improvement. Daniel is a very keen gardener and tends an allotment in Lewisham. He is a future resident of Church Grove with his partner Evan and their son.
Dwayne is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and has over 12 years of experience in the construction industry working on multiple sectors with a focus on residential projects. Dwayne joined RUSS in the winter of 2021 and leverages his expertise to provide RUSS with commercial governance to ensure cost control is given high importance and the commercial interests of RUSS are protected.
Dwayne is passionate about learning more about Community Led Housing and its role in providing affordable and sustainable homes within the UK.
Eleanor was Chair of the East Dulwich Estate Regeneration Project Team for five years, where she worked with residents and Southwark Council to plan and oversee new building work and refurbishment of estate landscaping, ensuring that residents’ views and interests were heard and acted upon. In this role, she helped fundraise and create a new community garden and organised community events. Eleanor is a future Church Grove Project resident and longstanding member of RUSS.
Evan Placey is a playwright and screenwriter by day and moonlights as Chair of Bromley’s Fostering Panel and also as an Independent on Coram’s Adoption Panel and Adopt London North. Evan’s passion is arts for children and young people and he continues to run writing workshops for young people in schools, community settings, and in prisons. He is a future resident of Church Grove his partner Daniel and their son.
Tessa has spent over a decade in sustainable housing, including as a Sustainability Manager at Peabody and a Pre-Construction Manager at One Housing. She is currently Head of Design and Technical at One Housing, where her work includes the development of an Electric Vehicle policy and Road to Net Zero Carbon Strategy. Tessa is Chair of the London Environment Group of Registered Providers and is part of the National Housing Federation Advisory Environment Group. She is a Visiting Lecturer in Architectural Technology at the University of Westminster.
Victoria is RUSS Client Representative and has a background as a Chartered Building Surveyor and Project Manager. With over 10 years of experience across both the public and private sectors, working on a varied range of schemes, predominantly mixed use with a focus on commercial and residential. Through her project experience she has gained an in-depth knowledge of procurement, contract administration, governance and control of the project team. With a comprehensive understanding of the wider real estate business and project life cycle Victoria is keen to further develop her understanding of Community Led Housing and use this to shape the future of the delivery of affordable residential schemes for all. She hopes that her in depth understanding of project delivery will support the seamless integration of self build.
Previous members of the Church Grove Project Board
Ben Beck (Trustee)
Becca Antink Trustee (Executive Member 2022)
Dinah Roake (Client Rep)
Mike Freed (Chair of Church Grove Project Board, 2017-2021)
James Kinnersly (Executive Member, CGPB 2020-21)
Anurag Verma (Chair of RUSS Board)
