‘Much needed’ Ayton homes receive seal of approval from tenants

The first affordable homes built by Berwickshire Housing Association in 18 years have been hugely popular at Beanburn in Ayton.The 31 homes, built by Cruden Building (East), attracted a total of 3,293 applications. The properties make up Phase 1 of the development and comprise a mix of bungalows, wheelchair accessible homes and three and four-bedroom houses.BHA has owned the site for over 20 years and worked in partnership with Scottish Borders Council and the Scottish Government to bring the much needed homes to Ayton.A masterplan exercise was carried out with architects Smith Scott Mullen, which included a public consultation, the results of which were fed into the final design. A mix of house types and sizes were identified in a local housing needs assessment.All the properties are described as offering ‘modern and spacious’ homes that are energy efficient. The houses meet Silver standard for energy efficiency and have the latest in heat pumps for hot water and space heating and two meet Gold Standard.The Beanburn project is the fifth to be delivered by Cruden Building (East) in partnership with BHA and will bring the total number of homes they have delivered jointly to 129.A number of Borders companies were employed as subcontractors on the project, including: A.S. Crawford, Denholm (groundworks), Teviotdale, Jedburgh (plumbing) and CIS, Duns and St Boswells (bricklayers). Cruden also donated £2,000 to Ayton Primary School as part of the firm’s commitment to investing in the local community.Some land has been allocated to Abundant Borders for use by the community while bird and bat boxes have also been included in the work carried outPlanning approval was granted for a total of 50 homes at Beanburn with Phase 2 expected sometime in the future.