ALMOST half of two housing sites’ new-build properties will be classed as affordable, it was revealed this week.

Vistry will deliver more than 450 new homes across two sites at Mapplewell and Carlton.

At Mapplewell, Vistry will build 239 new homes, half of which will be affordable and managed by its partner, Vico Homes.

Full planning permission is already in place at Mapplewell, with work due to begin shortly on a range of homes from two-bedroom bungalows to four-bedroom detached family houses.

At Carlton, Vistry has recently exchanged contract with the landowner and will now progress detailed proposals for 215 new homes, again with 50 per cent affordable housing provision.

The plans include a £1m investment in local education, alongside highway improvements, enhanced biodiversity measures and new public access links.

Both sites are allocated in Barnsley Council’s local plan development blueprint and will make a ‘significant contribution’ towards meeting local housing need, Vistry bosses told the Chronicle.

Managing director Andrew Poyner said: “Together, these new developments will make a real difference to Barnsley, both in terms of housing supply and the wider investment that comes with it.

“Bringing a former mining site back into use, investing in schools and infrastructure, and making sure half the homes are affordable is exactly the kind of balanced growth our model enables.

“These are what communities want to see.”

Affordable housing provides lower cost rental or ownership options for households who would have been unable to get on to the housing ladder.

It includes shared ownership and rent-to-buy schemes and has been delivered by Vistry and Vico elsewhere in the town, including in Wombwell.

However, criticism has come for the Mapplewell site from local councillors, who said the scale of the site once complete will exacerbate localised issues.

Coun Leyla Nayeri said: “Vistry have undertaken vegetation clearance works and further ground investigations.

“Construction work is scheduled to start this year and could take four to five years to complete.

“We are concerned about the impact that a development on this scale will have on our already stretched infrastructure such as schools, GPs and highways.

“Both Vistry and the council’s planning department have informed us that a ‘material start on site’ was made in 2020 by digging and concreting foundation footings on two plots.

“Following a material start being made there is no time limit to complete the development.

“We have received complaints from residents in relation to impacts that the site works has been having on highways disruption, wildlife, working outside permitted hours and loss of footpaths.

“We recognise the need for extra housing in Barnsley but the council needs to include communities in the planning of the required infrastructure to support this.

“The Labour council’s flawed local plan, which the Lib Dems opposed and called to be revised, does not include the road improvements, extra school places and GPs which you need.”