A HOUSING company has given councillors a tour of their site in Egremont.

The Gleeson team gave a number of councillors and council representatives a tour around the development, as well as a talk about the history of the site and Gleeson’s £3.2 million investment in the Egremont area.

Among the council representatives who visited the site were Cllr Andy Pratt, executive member and portfolio holder at Copeland Borough Council, Egremont town councillor Mike McVeigh, and Egremont town councillor Thomas Higgins.

The land, formerly used to graze horses, off Fell View Drive will soon host a number of spacious two, three and four-bedroom semi and detached homes, with prices expected to start from £106,995.

The Government backed Help to Buy scheme will ensure that many of these homes will be cheaper to buy than local council rent levels.

Gleeson’s community matters scheme, which gives back to the areas in which it builds, has seen the housebuilder work closely with the Egremont community.

In 2020 Gleeson ran a competition with Bookwell Primary School, which is just a stone’s throw from the development, to name Florence Drive.

Joel Pickering, now a year six pupil, suggested Florence Drive in honour of the local landmark and arts and craft centre called Florence Mine in the town.

Most of the new homes will be able to see the old mine from their upstairs windows.

Recently, Joel came to visit Florence Drive with his head teacher Russell Hardy and his dad who also works at the school as a senior teaching assistant, and was delighted to see the site in action.

Speaking of his trip to the Gleeson site, Cllr McVeigh said he was impressed with what the Gleeson team was doing and how they have been developing the site.

He said: "I think that they have developed the site very well. The site previously was in ownership of the council for a number of years and was mainly used for grazing, so their developments were a welcome addition to our borough.

"We do hope they have some success and provide something much needed for the borough.

"We wish the Gleeson team well, us councillors did find it very interesting."