A WEEK of events is going ahead to address the need for affordable housing in the Bridport area.

Bridport Housing Week will be held from Thursday, October 21 until Saturday, October 30.

The week will be led by Bridport Town Council, Raise the Roof, Wessex Community Assets and Bridport Area Community Housing (BACH) a recently established not-for-profit organisation which aims to provide affordable homes for local people.

The goal is to 'identify and set in motion' community-led solutions that will provide energy efficient, genuinely affordable homes.

More than 500 households in the Bridport area are registered on Dorset Council’s housing register as being in housing need.

The programme of events includes an evening talk and discussion on Thursday, October 21 at Bridport Town Hall. The event is titled, ‘We Can Do It Ourselves -Tackling Bridport’s housing crisis through community-led solutions’, and will run from 5.30pm until 7.30pm.

Keynote speaker Melissa Mean, from Bristol-based We Can Make project, will discuss a different approach to providing affordable housing using a process of co-design to develop housing that the community needs but on their own terms.

This will be followed by a round table discussion to explore the scope for adopting similar actions in the Bridport area.

A spokesperson for Bridport Housing Week said: "The cost of housing, whether rented or bought, continues to soar ahead of the capacity of average local incomes to access it.

"The need for affordable housing in the area is even greater than before the pandemic and is likely to continue to grow.

"The dire situation leaves a feeling of hopelessness for many, grown-up children have no choice but to stay in an already crowded family home or to move away from Bridport altogether."

On Saturday, October 30 a range of organisations involved in local housing, community-led and commercial - including representatives of the Foundry Lea development and Housing Associations - will set up their stalls to be available to answer questions and discuss problems and solutions. This will take place at Bridport Town Hall from 10am until 2pm.

Three workshops will also take place throughout the morning of Saturday, October 30 from the WI Hall on North Street, underpinning Bridport Town Council’s energy efficiency campaign, and looking into how residents can lower household energy bills. The workshops will take place at 9.45am, 11am and 12pm.

To book a place at one of these workshops, visit www.bridport-tc.gov.uk

For further information on the programme of events, visit www.BridportACH.org.uk