PLANS for a £4.5m eco-friendly estate in Huddersfield have been given the green light.
Yorkshire Housing Ltd is building 37 two-bedroom flats on the Poplar and Gelder estate at Moldgreen as part of a multi-million-pound regeneration of the area.
YHL, a not-for-profit organisation, has been working on ideas for the site off Wakefield Road for four years and is delighted to get the go-ahead.
Jim Reed, its project manager, said: “We are delighted we have reached this milestone. We plan to be on site before the end of the year to start demolition.
“The new apartments will be spacious and modern and will meet energy-efficiency standards well above current building regulations.
“This means our customers will quickly see the cost benefits, especially in the current period of ever-increasing fuel prices.”
The existing estate comprises a number of early 20th-century tenement-style flats which have become unsustainable in recent years.
In the past 18 months YHL acquired an adjacent workshop site in order to ease the development of new, energy- efficient and affordable housing.
A Government grant of £1.7m has helped to pay for part of the scheme.
Kirklees Council granted permission for the first phase of the redevelopment last week.
It will include the 37 flats, which will be available to rent or own at affordable prices on the site off Poplar Street.
Plans are under way for phase two of the regeneration, which will encompass the frontage on to Wakefield Road.
The £4.5m project will also help safeguard a number of local jobs in the hard-hit building industry.
