A ceremony was held to mark the opening of a new community hub at the heart of Red Deer Village Residential Park in Stepps, just outside of Glasgow in September.

The official opening of the building coincided with the park’s open weekend where the public were welcomed on-site to see the new homes available, explore the grounds and enjoy a hog roast, tea, coffee and cakes.

Red Deer Village has been owned and operated by brothers John and Ivan Hendry for the past 13 years, ever since they bought the site. It was a rundown, and probably disused, car park with virtually no landscaping on the site, which offered an immense opportunity for development. Since then they have had an ongoing programme of investment to bring the park up to the very high standard it is today. They built it up from scratch to become the five-star, gated park it is today, and Red Deer Village now boasts numerous industry awards for both conservation and professional management. The business also includes a self-catering holiday park.

They have certainly raised the bar, representing a huge investment in the business, with a £450,000 state-of-the-art community hub provided for residents, where they can gather to relax, enjoy social gatherings and other events and generally feel part of a community. It is also intended that the hub be used by local associations and groups as well as by the 50 park residents, some of whom have lived at Red Deer for more than 10 years. John said: “It is a lot of money to spend, but well worth it. Pathfinder tells us it’s the biggest one in the UK it has manufactured so far.”

Having both lived abroad and travelled extensively, John and Ivan were inspired by the quality of parks in countries such as Canada, the USA and Australia and have worked towards creating a residential park which stands out from the crowd and exceeds expectations. Their park and the new building certainly do that and the high-quality landscaping and planting by the in-house gardening team provides the initial visual wow factor on arrival at the park gates.

Ivan said: “We are delighted to have made our new community hub a reality. It is a significant investment to make in the business and has taken over 18 months in the planning and over 6 months to build and complete, as it is a proper building, not some sort of sales cabin.”

John added: “Our enormous thanks go to our three guests – Rufus who is here to represent the park industry, and whom we hope we have impressed with our park landscaping which is a full time job for our gardening team, and our two local politicians who have both made time in their busy schedules to come along.

“We are very grateful and are pleased that everyone has been impressed with the size and scale of the community hub – it’s a stunning, light filled building which will be very well used by our local residents here on the park, a place where they can gather and relax.”

The park worked with Pathfinder Park Homes to design and build the new hub, who has been supplying park homes to the industry for more than 40 years. Commenting on the opening of the hub, Bruce MacDonald, Pathfinder Homes’ managing director, said: ” We were thrilled to be awarded the contract to build the hub for Red Deer Village. As a 60ft x 40ft structure built on a steel chassis, this is the first of its kind and we are very proud to be the only manufacturers to have created something so architecturally brilliant!

“Working with Red Deer Village has been an immense pleasure and we are really excited to work with them on future projects!”

Extensive groundworks were carried out on-site in preparation for the hub, and the park used some of their own workers to install it, including their groundwork staff, in-house builders and tradespeople.

The Hendry brothers explained that a variety of local suppliers from all over Glasgow and Lanarkshire had also helped to create the hub. Ivan said: “Many of them are trusted family firms we have worked with for many years, such as Hi-Lite Electrical Services from Barrhead, Vincent Coyle Plumbing from Motherwell, Jem Carpets, Bishopbriggs, and Craigmarloch Nurseries from Kilsyth. Our thanks go to everyone who has worked so hard to complete the hub in time for the ceremony.” John also added: “Every detail is important to us, and we strive to use locally sourced materials. Plumbing, tiling and electrical works have all been locally sourced, along with our office furniture for the building, plus blinds, carpets and soft furnishings.”

As a Gold Award winner in the David Bellamy Conservation Scheme, the park owners are delighted that the hub is 70% more energy efficient than the building which it replaced. They were thrilled to be joined by BH&HPA National Adviser on Conservation and Environmental Management, Rufus Bellamy, to help cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

Fulton MacGregor MSP, Scottish National Party Member for Coatbridge and Christen and his Labour colleague Hugh Gaffney MP, member for Coatbridge, Christen and Bellshill joined Rufus Bellamy to cut the ribbon and declare the building open.

John Hendry said: The day was a huge success with all who attended. By inviting the politicians, we hope to raise awareness of the benefits of residential park living and show the quality of the development here. We highlighted to Mr MacGregor and Mr Gaffney the social benefits that park homes can offer for the semi-retired and retired and they were able to see for themselves the high quality and comfort offered in the park homes. They were also both given a copy of the 2014 economic impact of the holiday parks survey.”

Red Deer Village is very much a family business with a personal touch, as evidenced by the fact that Ivan and John’s sister Ashleigh is responsible for all park home interior design and soft furnishing, using exclusive Voyage fabrics from Scottish Mills. “It’s another small detail but adds so much to buyers’ first impressions,” said John.

John and Ivan’s children are also very involved in the day-to-day running of the business, looking after marketing, social media and other areas. John and Ivan are thrilled that the next generation want to join them in continuing to grow and develop Red Deer Village.

Left to Right: John Hendry (Director), Bruce MacDonald (Managing Director) and son Dan, Ivan Hendry (Director)