Portsmouth schoolchildren and residents celebrate completion of £4.4m council home development in Hilsea

Schoolchildren and community members came together in honour of the 17 new properties on the corner of Doyle Avenue and Northern Parade, Hilsea, earlier this month.

Children from nearby Kings Academy in Northern Parade aided the celebrations, providing steel pan music; and social enterprise MAKE, which supports adults with learning disabilities, worked with the pupils on making decorations for the new homes, including windchimes.

Lord Mayor at the time Frank Jonas also attended the event with former Lady Mayoress Joy Maddox.

Mr Jonas, who stepped down from the role on May 17, said: ‘It's really special that we've watched this grow from a disused empty space, into this brilliant complex of council houses.

‘The people who are moving into them are in for a lovely surprise.’

The houses and flats in Doyle Avenue are the most energy-efficient to have been built by the council and include three houses designed for people with disabilities.

They have been built by contractor PMC Construction and Development Services, featuring all-electric energy sources to heat and power the homes as cheaply and energy-efficiently as possible.

Cabinet member for housing and preventing homelessness, Councillor Darren Sanders, added: ‘We're determined to provide new council homes which Portsmouth residents need to the highest standard possible, and Doyle Avenue is a demonstration of how we are doing this even through the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘By completing 17 new homes which will be let at affordable rents, are extremely energy-efficient and take into account the needs of disabled residents we have achieved exactly what the city demands from its council, with hundreds more in the pipeline at other sites.

‘I'm grateful to PMC for their outstanding work in completing this contract in the way they have, and it's heartening that we have been able to make this investment using a Portsmouth company through such a difficult time for many businesses.’

The homes were built on the site of a former health clinic that was demolished in 2013 and was then used as parking.

As previously reported, the homes were granted planning permission by Portsmouth City Council back in August 2020.