Work starts on homes in former coalfield

The works will see 22 new homes built by South Yorkshire Housing Association on land off Cross Lane.

Each of the new houses will have a raft of "green" features, such as photovoltaic tiles to generate renewable energy and rainwater harvesting to conserve water.

A spokesman for Barnsley Council said: "The houses will take advantage of innovative construction methods and be insulated to significantly higher standards than those required under the current regulations.

"These family homes will largely be for rent, but four will be available under a 'homebuy' scheme where a share of the equity can be purchased."

South Yorkshire Housing Association and its contractor, Clayfields, are hoping to complete the building work by July 2011.

Barnsley Council's Cabinet spokesman for development, ]Bill Newman, said: "Royston is naturally a rural environment being surrounded by attractive areas of greenery.

"It's brilliant to see some of this environmentalism moving into the built-up parts of Royston through the Green Corridor programme."

The Green Corridor project is an alliance between Barnsley, Doncaster and Wakefield local authorities that has been set up to tackle issues of low housing demand in neighbouring towns and villages.

In Barnsley, the Green Corridor is an area of land which includes the former coalfield communities of Grimethorpe, Shafton, Brierley, Royston and Carlton.

Since 2003, the focus of the scheme in Barnsley has been on improving private sector homes that were in need of investment, though soon it will shift to providing new housing for the growing population.