A LONG awaited £100m scheme to regenerate hundreds of council homes is finally underway.

Construction work has begun on the first phase of the Townhill Park redevelopment - almost two years later than initially planned.

Contractors, Drew Smith, have now started ground work on Plot One, situated on the corner of Meggeson Avenue and Townhill Way.

Due to be completed in March 2019, it will consist of 56 affordable homes and will cost approximately £10 million .

That is a tenth of Southampton City Council’s budget for the entire 665 home Townhill Park project

The Labour leader of the city council Simon Letts said: “These affordable homes are the first step in a much larger project designed to help transform the Townhill community.

“Over the years, we’ve been working with the community and have recently received helpful feedback on the proposed Village Green and its playground, part of the environmental improvements for all residents.”

Stuart Munro, managing director of Drew Smith, who are part of regeneration business Galliford Try Partnerships, added: “We are extremely pleased to be delivering the first phase of new homes at Townhill Park, regenerating the site to provide a significant number of much needed affordable homes.”

Work on the site was originally due to begin in 2014.

But civic chiefs were forced to delay the project due to the “complexity” of the site and the process of listening to residents’ feedback.

This included successfully moving residents from the current Townhill Park flats.

One caused delays by defiantly refusing to leave their property in one of the towers earmarked for demolition.

In total, 428 properties, dating from the 1960s, will be demolished as part of the wider Townhill Park redevelopment.

Civic chiefs plan to replace them with 665 newly built homes.

The 56 new properties on Plot One will be owned by the council and will be available for rent at affordable rents.

They will include 17 one-bedroom flats, 26 two-bedroom flats, seven three-bedroom flats, as well as six two-storey, three-bedroom houses.

Civic chiefs managed to secure a £750,000 grant from the Homes and Communities Agency and money received in Section 106 payments from private housing developers to support the development of Plot One.

Plans for the next plot, on the opposite side of Meggeson Avenue running up to Paulet Close, are currently being progressed.

That phase is expected to include around 213 homes, of which up to 55 per cent will be affordable housing and the rest private rental.

Further details are expected in the near future.

A citywide, tandem consultation on proposed changes to housing policies affecting the decommissioning of council housing and Townhill Park, is underway, and closes 1 October.

Visit www.southampton.gov.uk/decommissioning for more information.