Hazel Court a new housing development offering 21st century style and innovation in Swansea, Wales, has chosen a SALTO access control system to provide advanced security management. Operated by Family Housing Association (Wales) Ltd, Hazel Court is designed to provide a new way of living for the over 55’s. It is an apartment complex that is intended to be part of the community – not a community apart – and many of its communal facilities will also available to people and organisations in the wider community.

It offers tenants 120 spacious apartments, attractive landscaped grounds and all area access for wheelchair users and lifts to all floors. It also incorporates advanced technology to allow tenants to contact staff 24 hours a day, and boasts flexible on-site services to meet various and changing needs including an on-site care & support team.

In keeping with their 21st Century concept to provide totally keyless access, enhanced security and to integrate with other modern technological systems, a state-of-the-art electronic access control requirement was specified at the complex’s design stage.

Ramesh Gurdev, SALTO Systems UK Sales Manager, explains, “As the complex is for the over 55s with a proportion of elderly and less able tenants, the ease of use over a key system coupled with the enhanced security of electronic access control, made SALTO a particularly relevant choice. Over 166 stand alone Mifare Comfort and Security handle sets operated by proximity cards have been fitted throughout the complex of 4 buildings including the Energy Centre, as well as off-line wall readers and an SVN (SALTO Virtual Network) on-line reader/update point in a central, frequently accessed location. Additional access control locks have also been fitted to some service cupboards and as the main locking system for the various other facilities. The SVN virtual network provides 90% of what users get from a fully wired online system but at the cost of a stand alone system. It uses distributed intelligence in the locks and cards to allow Hazel Court to manage their access control requirements in a secure and comfortable way. Benefits include eliminating the need to replace locks if key security is breached due to the loss or theft of a card, allowing locks to be updated, restricted or deleted remotely without the need to walk the site updating locks with a programmer.”

Local SALTO re-seller Lock-Tech carried out the installation. Managing Director, Phil Harvey, comments, “We offered the customer the ability to have just one access system to control the entire complex, with one card and one software package. In addition to this we have also worked closely with Family Housing Association (Wales) Ltd to produce an integrated apartment entry system that meets the requirements of their physically challenged tenants. The SALTO handle set utilises a mortice night latch coupled with an electric strike as a standard installation. If an apartment is subsequently let to a physically challenged tenant who may have difficulty in opening their entrance door, an automatic door operator replaces the existing door closer. This auto door operator is activated by either an internal exit switch or by a valid fob at the handle set. A physically capable person can open the door normally, but if a physically challenged person allows 2 – 3 seconds to pass, the auto door operator will release the electric strike and power open the door. This has kept on-site hardware and costs to an absolute minimum and has enabled Hazel Court to achieve significant cost savings on their security spend.”