Around 300 residents came together as one to celebrate the joining of Charter Community Housing and Banbury Homes, both subsidiaries of Sanctuary Group, at an activity packed fun day on Saturday 21st June.

The family fun day, at Banbury Cricket Club, united the local community and gave residents of all ages the opportunity to get together and party following the amalgamation of the two associations by Sanctuary Group in April. The associations now operate under the Charter Community Housing name.

Attractions included a magician, face painting, bouncy castle, jumbo slide, jujitsu demonstrations, giant Jenga , henna art, a coconut shy and music from local radio station Touch FM, while a free barbeque and refreshments were provided for all.

During the day, residents were given the opportunity to talk to Charter staff about the services they receive and voice their visions for the future on a wish tree ideas board.

Special guest for the day was North Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry who officially opened the party and marked the combining of the associations by cutting a cake with Harj Lota, Charter Community Housing’s managing director, and Sandie Dancer, chair of tenants association Residents’ Voice.

Said Mr Baldry: “It’s great that Banbury Homes and Charter Community Housing are coming together as part of Sanctuary Group. This now provides opportunities for local tenants to work with Sanctuary and develop ideas as to how they want to see their housing improve over the coming years.”

Harj Lota, Director of Charter Community Housing said: “I was delighted that several hundred of our residents came along to enjoy the day and to celebrate what is a new era for Charter under the Sanctuary umbrella. Staff and tenant reps worked extremely hard to organise the events and residents rewarded us by turning up in numbers. We really did have a fun day.”