New homes at last for Darwen clearance area (From Lancashire Telegraph)

New homes at last for Darwen clearance area

1:11pm Friday 10th July 2009 in

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A DEAL is under way to build 30 new homes in Darwen’s Queen Street and Hindle Street clear-ance area – four years after a bitter wrangle over the site began.

The area, part of a multi-million pound Housing Market Renewal progra-mme to rejuvenate East Lancashire, was declared for clearance in September 2005.

Originally, it also included terrace housing in Harwood Street, but residents fought successfully to keep them.

Residents who wanted to keep their houses in Queen Street and Hindle Street were defeated, and bull-dozers finally moved on to the site last year.

Now, two recommend-ations to build new afford-able homes there are being looked at by Blackburn with Darwen Council – to sell the land to Twin Valley Homes Ltd, or enter into a part-nership with them.

A council report says that the there are financial implications with the first option because the value of the site is likely to be suppressed by the current economic climate.

In a partnership, any profit made on the homes would be shared between the two parties.

Sunnyhurst ward council-lor Tony Melia said that new homes on the site would be “uplifting for the whole area”.

He said: “I think it’s a step in the right direction because we need more affordable homes in the area.

“There is a lot of work going on to sandblast and rebuild parts of Harwood Street too, so it will all look very nice when it’s done.”

Last year the area was described as a ‘slum’ by nearby residents when demolition work was slowed down while reclamation work took place.

They said it was attracting gangs of thieves and youths.

It is thought that Twin Valley Homes would use its Affordable Housing Grant to build the homes.

Final designs and a planning application is set to be processed in June 2010, with work starting on the site in November 2010, finishing in May 2012.