NEW BACTON RESIDENTS COME TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE NEW COMMUNITY NAMED FOR POPULAR LOCAL FIGURE

Residents of a new community in Bacton have come together to celebrate its completion – and to mark the memory of the local figure after whom it is named.

Victory Housing Trust invited residents from the 24 new affordable homes it has built off Coast Road in the village to a celebratory hog roast, where they were able to meet members of the family of Jimmy Gooch, whose name now adorns the new road, Gooch Close.

Mr Gooch was captain of the darts team at the adjacent Duke pub for around half a century, and was a well-known and much-loved local figure.  He was 92 when he died in 2016.

Mr Gooch’s grandchildren James Gooch and Hannah Gent attended the event with their families, to welcome residents to the new community named after their grandfather.

Victory has built 19 new homes for affordable rent to people with a strong local connection to Bacton, as well as five new homes for shared ownership.

“Building new homes is about much more than just bricks and mortar; we are creating new communities,” said Christine Candlish, housing director at Victory.

“We felt it was important to bring the members of that new community together to celebrate its completion, and given that the majority of residents have a strong connection to Bacton, to mark the very appropriate name that we have given the new close.”

Residents enjoyed a hog roast and ice cream on the central green space in the close, with face painting and games to entertain the children.

The new development consists of six one-bedroom flats; one one-bedroom house; four one-bedroom bungalows; eight two-bedroom houses; one two-bedroom wheelchair-accessible bungalow; three three-bedroom houses; and one four-bedroom house.

Victory has built 981 new affordable homes since its inception in 2006.