Horden affordable housing scheme opened

Published by Neil Shaefer for Durham Aged Mineworkers' Homes Association in Housing and also in Communities

A housing association has proved that building homes is child’s play – after opening a new £290,000 affordable housing scheme on the site of a former school playground.

Durham Aged Mineworkers’ Homes Association (DAMHA) has developed four homes on the site of the former St Mary’s School playground in Horden.

Known as School Court, the four two-bedroom bungalows have all been let to people in housing need aged 50 and over and feature solar panels which capture the sun’s energy to help heat the water in the homes.

Among the couples living in the new homes are Kenneth Lincoln and Sheila Williams, who coincidentally attended St Mary’s School and enjoyed many happy times on the playground.

Mr Williams said: “We really enjoying living here as it has so many nice memories for us. We couldn’t be happier in our home.”

Paul Mullis, DAMHA Chief Executive, said: “We only had a very small site on which to build the homes, but we are delighted to have been able to provide four spacious eco-friendly bungalows and to make a contribution to meeting the huge demand for affordable housing in the area.

“They say your school years are the best of your life, so hopefully this will also appeal to the people living in the homes.”

Durham County Councillor Paul Stradling, who represents Horden, said: “School Court is a high quality development and demonstrates the Associations continued commitment to provide first class living accommodation across County Durham’s mining communities.”

DAMHA’s development partner on the scheme was Ronden Builders and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) provided grant funding of £222,000 towards the development.

The homes were officially opened by Helen Hesler, MBE, Chairperson of the Easington District Association for the Disabled. Mrs Hesler’s husband was the former manager of Horden Colliery.