Housing Hartlepool

Housing Hartlepool chose long-standing resident Bob Farrow to help start the demolition of properties involved in £12m regeneration scheme.

Mr Farrow, who has lived in the close-knit Belle Vue area since he was a young boy when the homes were first built 50 years ago, took to the controls of a demolition digger to get the project under way.

About 50 Housing Hartlepool dwellings will be knocked down with this stage taking until just before Christmas to complete.

Building work is scheduled to start in the first half of 2010 and will eventually lead to the construction of just under 100 homes, comprising two, three and four-bedroomed houses and some bungalows.

The high quality, energy efficient homes will be available for sale, shared ownership/shared equity and rent.

Bob, who was born in nearby Borrowdale Street, said the demolition has evoked mixed feelings.

"I was born a street or two away and saw these houses getting built when I was a youngster. It is sad, but I think it is going to be happy in the future.

"I have seen the plans for the new estate and they are going to be wonderful. I am sure the people will be over the moon to come back and live in them, rent them, and purchase them."

Mark Dutton, Housing Hartlepool's Head of Regeneration, said: "The Belle Vue Scheme is part of Housing Hartlepool's social commitment to improving people's neighbourhoods by creating sustainable communities with modern, affordable and environmentally-friendly homes.

"Belle Vue is a key regeneration project alongside one of the main routes in to Hartlepool, so the wider community will reap rewards from its transformation as well as it helping uplift Hartlepool's image to visitors."

Housing Hartlepool, Hartlepool Borough Council, and Hartlepool New Deal for Communities (NDC) are working in partnership on the £12 million scheme in the Kendal Road area. The demolition contractor is Sirius and the developer Frank Haslam Milan (FHM).

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