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North Belfast Partnership
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BELFAST
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Fax: 028 9075 2788
Email: info@nthbp.org
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New Homes at the Old Coulters Site |
Date: 08/03/2006
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Newington, a community based Housing Association in North Belfast, have officially handed over the last home in their development on the site of the former Coulter’s car showroom on the Antrim Road. The 32 new family homes, which cost £4.5m to complete, were designed by the Housing Executive’s Design Services and built by Newington Housing Association. The homes have been completed to lifetime home standards and are the first of the Association’s schemes to achieve Eco Homes standard.
Speaking about the development, Newington Housing Association Chairman, Peter Privilege said: -
“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to make this positive contribution to the lower Antrim Road area. This latest housing development is just one of a number we have provided in North Belfast and further demonstrates our commitment to provide good quality social housing for the people of North Belfast.
Newington is fully aware of the need for regeneration within the North Belfast area and the Girdwood site in particular. We remain committed to working with the local community in an attempt to help deliver their aspirations. The intention at our inception in 1975 was that Newington Housing be established as a community based Association - this was and remains part of our ethos.
Community consultation is essential to the success of schemes and over the last 30 years we have built robust and successful working relationship with various residents’ groups. We acknowledge that these relationships are vital in helping people to contribute to their communities; we will try to promote regeneration and social inclusion through partnership with local residents’ groups as we believe that community based partnership are the key to the successful regeneration of areas.
We firmly believe that Newington Housing has a valuable and indeed essential role to play within the Housing Association movement and we are fully prepared to face whatever challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead in the pursuit of our primary aim - to provide decent homes for those in need.”
He went on to say: -
“On behalf of the Management Committee and staff of Newington Housing Association I would like to take this opportunity to extend our best wishes to all the residents of the new houses.”
The scheme was carried out as part the North Belfast Housing Strategy. Strategy Manager Sharon Beattie was also delighted to see the development completed and added:
“One of the key elements of the Housing Executive’s North Belfast Housing Strategy is to build new homes and address waiting lists in North Belfast. The site of the former Coulter’s car showroom was one of the first sites acquired by the Housing Executive as part of its North Belfast Housing Strategy so I’m delighted to be here to today to see at first hand its transformation.
The new homes have all been built to a very high standard and I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Housing Executive to wish all the tenants many happy years in their new homes.”
Speaking on behalf of the Antrim Road Regeneration Committee (ARRC) Brian Mullan added:
“One of the main aims of ARRC is to regenerate the Lower Antrim Road area by developing mixed use regeneration initiatives and this housing development is a prime example of how this can be achieved.
We believe that the provision of housing and other amenities in the area is crucial for its regeneration and the local community has been involved in this scheme since the outset.
The Integrated Area plan for the area over the last 5 years included housing at this location and with the potential for additional housing at Girdwood as part of mixed development needs in the area.
We see this housing development as a major investment by the Housing Executive and Newington Housing Association, who have delivered a successful scheme of good quality homes in partnership with the community.
The new homes, which have been completed on a very prominent location on the Lower Antrim Road, not only improve the physical landscape of the area but also complement other new initiatives such as;
The Amicus Regional Union building, the new Health and Well Being Centre being built at Lincoln Avenue and other projects with our group being carried out on the Arterial route in conjunction with Belfast City Council and Urban II.
However, we recognise that there is still more to be done and look forward to further investment and regeneration in the area and its community.”
Mrs McNulty was the last tenant to move into the development and she said:
“I’m thrilled with my new home and I know it’s going to make such a difference to me and my family. Staff at Newington have been brilliant in keeping me informed of progress and today is a real milestone for my family – words can’t express how we feel”.
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