ACHA opens eight Oban homes worth £1.2m

THE KEYS to eight new affordable family homes on Oban’s Sunderland Drive will be handed to their new tenants tomorrow (Friday November 17).

The four three-bedroom and four two-bedroom social houses, built by MacLeod Construction with a contract cost of £1.2 million, will be officially opened by Councillor Robin Currie, policy lead for housing at Argyll and Bute Council. The new tenants will be piped in by Angus MacColl.

The homes will be rented at affordable rates through Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA). The eight homes are part of a 122-unit programme to meet housing need throughout Argyll and Bute. ACHA also plans to build another 230 in the lifetime of the current Scottish Parliament.

Last month ACHA also opened its first new-build homes on the island of Coll. The twounit development comprises two- and three-bedroom family accommodation. The two new homes will complement the nine existing ACHA properties on the island which were built in the 1960s.

The development was built by MacLeod Construction of Lochgilphead with funding from Scottish Government, Argyll and Bute Council and ACHA to an overall project value of £505,000.

Alastair MacGregor, ACHA’s chief executive, said it was a milestone for ACHA as ‘the first homes we have built on Coll since the stock transfer over 10 years ago. It is part of ACHA’s ongoing commitment to provide housing for our island communities. At the present time we have housing on 12 of Argyll’s islands.

‘It is my hope that these homes will play a crucial part in meeting housing need on Coll and help us keep families on the island.’

Councillor Currie added: ‘In recent years the number of houses available for let on the Isle of Coll has been very limited, so the addition of two quality newbuild houses is great and makes an important contribution to the general health and wellbeing of local residents.’