Trafalgar street

Trafalgar Housing Association was formed in 1990 when it took over the council estate consisting of 218 three and four storey tenement flats in Trafalgar Street in Dalmuir, Clydebank. They suffered several problems including poor insulation, single glazing, balconies, no central heating and flat roofs. As a result, the estate was one of the least popular in Clydebank with around 30% of the properties lying vacant.

The estate was redeveloped in 6 separate phases over ten years. The first 3 phases were comprehensively modernised and the last 3 were demolished and rebuilt. The latter redevelopments in particular allowed the association to bring a greater diversity in the type of housing provided in the estate and at the same time build in environmental improvements such as play and sports areas and redesigning of the original streetscape.

Since April 2003 the Trafalgar area has been monitored by a CCTV system that allows surveillance of open spaces and common areas to help reduce vandalism and street disorder in the area.

The Terraces area was transferred to Trafalgar in January 1998 and comprised 180 tenement flats located in buildings varying from three to five storeys in height. Each flat had either three or four bedrooms and the high density and poor housing mix meant crime and vandalism was common. These flats also had problems with inadequate heating, poor insulation, flat roofs and poor internal design. The estate was very unpopular and almost 40% of the properties were empty by the time Trafalgar took over. The Terraces redevelopment programme was complicated by the steeply sloping site and poor ground condition that forced costs up. It was soon decided that total demolition followed by new building was the only feasible option and the association worked closely with local tenants to design a new housing mix of large family houses and smaller flats. The redevelopment of the Terraces was complete in the summer of 2003 and resulted in a total transformation of the area.