Housing Minister drops in for tea at Peterlee

Minister for Housing and Planning Yvette Cooper was given a colliery community welcome by pensioners Maureen and Derek Bell at Redesdale Court in Peterlee when she opened the scheme during her visit to County Durham in April.

Redesdale Court is the second of DAMHA's new-build schemes in Peterlee, following the completion of 12 bungalows at Coquet Close in 2003.

The £1.2m development consists of 15 two-bedroom bungalows and one three-bedroom bungalow for wheelchair access, built by the Association on a former council housing site acquired from Easington District Council.

President Bob Olaman said: "We were delighted to build these homes which have greatly improved the quality of life of older people in Easington and wish we could do more in an area where demand outstrips supply.

"Our bungalows have all the modern facilities that people want, but the neighbourhoods still have the old-fashioned, colliery community values of friendship and helping one another.

"And we are more than happy to be working in partnership once again with Easington District Council who have been great supporters of our organisation in the past."

Their new bungalow was "the light at the end of the tunnel" for Derek and Maureen Bell, both 69, when they moved into Redesdale Court last summer. "We were living downstairs in our three-bedroom home - where we'd been for 39 years - because my husband couldn't manage the stairs after suffering a severe stroke and brain surgery," explained Mrs Bell.

"I have mobility problems as well, due to osteoarthritis, so it was heavy for me going up and down the stairs. It's excellent here - the electric switches are higher on the walls, we've just had a level access shower fitted in the bathroom and there's a link to the mobile warden response, which makes me feel secure.

"DAMHA's homes are more like a family environment. Everybody is friendly and that uplifts you. We look out for each other, keep an eye on neighbours' houses when they're away and have a laugh and a cry together over our problems. Moving here was the best thing we did."

Mr Bell, a former maintenance manager, and his wife have a daughter, two sons and five grandchildren between the ages of 16 and eight. They are using their second bedroom as a dining room cum computer room, so Mrs Bell can keep in touch with her daughter, Gaynor, who is moving to Australia.

The Redesdale Court bungalows were built by Ronden Builders of Easington Colliery and the scheme costs were partly funded by Social Housing Grant from the Housing Corporation.

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