A NEW contractor has been found and work has resumed on a major housing development which stalled six weeks ago following the collapse of previous contractor Southdale.

Developers Mulberry Homes say work on the 82 homes at Leeming Gate, at Leeming Bar, near Bedale, has now restarted with the appointment of Lindum York as the new contractors responsible for building the two, three and four bedroom homes.

Alison Grainger, Director of Mulberry Homes Yorkshire, said: “We are delighted to have appointed Lindum as our new contractor. They have worked with our parent company Broadacres on several social and private housing schemes and have vast experience in building quality homes across all sectors.

“We wanted to act quickly to ensure any delay to the build programme was kept to an absolute minimum and by turning to Lindum we will now be able to get the scheme back on track.”

“With the new Leeming Bar bypass under construction and further community facilities planned, we believe these homes represent a sound investment for buyers, and 25 per cent of the homes have already been bought off plan.

“We would like to thank people who have already reserved homes for their patience and we look forward to welcoming them to their new homes very soon.”

The collapse of Southdale caused major problems for Mulberry as the contractor was also working on homes at The Oaks, part of the massive 900 home Sowerby Gate development near Thirsk. There are now hopes that work could restart there in the near future.

Director for Lindum York, Jonathan Sizer, added: “We are pleased to be asked by Mulberry Homes Yorkshire to complete this project. We are already working in Leeming Bar building a new food factory for Yorkshire Provinder and we are now looking forward to Lindum helping to create these additional new homes for the area.”

The work at Leeming Gate also includes plans to transform Leeming Bar providing a village green and a local shop to create a village centre for the community, 32 of the new houses will be affordable homes.

Mulberry say the first show home is scheduled to open in July with the first homes expected to be ready for handover to buyers towards the end of this year.

Southdale which was based in Halifax and was involved in several major housing developments in North Yorkshire and on Teesside went into administration on May 8.