EILDON Housing Association has held an open day June to showcase its latest development on the site of the former high school in Earlston.
The development of 64 affordable homes comprises a mix of family properties, lower and upper colony and cottage flats.
All houses and flats benefit from air source heating systems and are energy efficiency ‘B’ SAP rating. There is a mix of driveways and non-allocated parking.
Eildon’s chief executive Nile Istephan said, “This new development is another step towards addressing the acute housing need in the Scottish Borders with the local authority recently announcing a housing emergency for our region. For this development, we received up to 84 bids per home, highlighting the huge demand.
“We had some massive obstacles to overcome on this site but strong partnership working with the Scottish Government, building contractor Crudens, Scottish Borders Council, Aitken Turnbull Architects, Fairhurst Engineers and KLM Partnership and great links with the local community got this project over the line. A great accomplishment for everyone involved.”
As well as regenerating the site, Eildon’s investment brought benefits to the community with an upgrade by Scottish Water to serve the whole of the town. There were also many benefits delivered through Cruden, working with the community council and local primary school. One of the projects was two mosaics created by local artist Joy Parker with the assistance of the children from Earlston Primary.
Richard Crowther, director at Cruden, added, “We are delighted to deliver this superb development of new, low carbon homes which use significantly less energy than conventional homes, thanks to a number of green measures including air source heat pumps. Not only will these new homes make a big difference to those living here, we have also delivered valuable new jobs and training opportunities and worked with community groups and local schools to create a lasting legacy for the wider local area for generations to come.”
The total cost of the project was £12.8 million, comprising £6,970,000 from the Scottish Government, £200,000 grant from Scottish Borders Council and Eildon providing private finance of £5,640,000.
