Local homes for Nailsea people

New homes to rent at the newly named Brooking Meadow at Nailsea go on offer next month.

Nailsea Town Council planning and environment committee took nearly seven minutes to agree the name.

Committee chairman James Tonkin said: "It was the longest item on the agenda but although the name is very tenuous it was finally agreed."

The nine new houses at Whitesfield Road are due for completion at the end of February and an advertisement for people on the council house waiting list is likely to be posted online a few weeks prior to this date.

A North Somerset Council spokesman said: "The properties will be owned and run by Alliance Homes."

The small development consists of four two-bed flats, one two-bed bungalow adapted for the disabled, two, two-bed houses, one three-bed house and one four-bed property.

The homes will be available to rent and allocated via the district council Homechoice Register.

The site was formerly a disused playground and the headquarters of Nailsea Army Cadets.

However, following a fire the cadets were re-housed at Greenfield Crescent and the play equipment was removed nearly a decade ago after repeated attacks by vandals. 

Neighbours protested at the local of the open space but the build went ahead anyway.

Nearly 8,000 people are currently on the housing waiting list.

Many younger people who have grown up in Nailsea are forced to move out to other areas because they cannot afford to buy a home of their own because of the high property prices.

Mr Tonkin added: "There is a desperate need for local homes for local people and we hope this development isn't totally allocated to people from Weston-super-Mare and the wider parts of North Somerset..

"When this happened before we suffered untold social problems from people who really didn't want to live in Nailsea and failed to integrate with our close-knit community."