A NEW playground and commemorative bench have been unveiled as work on a £50m housing development in East Dorset nears the halfway mark.

The opening of the facilities at the Victory Oak site in St Leonards took place as Phase 2 of the project comes to a close.

At present 100 of the 210 homes in the development have been completed.

Overall the site will provide 126 open market sale, 59 affordable rent and 25 shared ownership properties.

The project is being carried out on land which was formerly an American military hospital and it is one of housing association Sovereign's biggest schemes in the south west of England.

The development is being delivered through a partnership working Sovereign, Homes England, East Dorset District Council, Natural England and the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Mark Washer, chief executive of Sovereign, said: “It’s been fantastic to meet the families who are making Victory Oak their new home today, who I hope will continue to take advantage of the excellent facilities available.

“While we’ll continue working closely with house builders, Victory Oak also represents another way housing associations are stepping up to help tackle the housing crisis.

"We bring a unique long-term focus to creating communities and, working alongside Homes England and local authority partners, we’ll buy more land and see sites through from planning to completion, building a broad range of homes, more quickly.”

The former Homes England brownfield site is also home to an award-winning 17-hectare nature reserve, which preserved rare grasses and wildlife including bats, dormice and lizards. It also now features a brand new cricket pavilion, which was handed over earlier this year.

Bruce Voss, senior development manager for Homes England said: “I’m delighted to see the completion of the high quality new facilities which have been provided for local residents as part of the Victory Oak scheme.

“Homes England is not just building new homes, but focusing on the provision of additional resources that make places great for communities to live in.

"We are delighted to have worked collaboratively with Sovereign and the local authority and look forward to seeing the community enjoy the new playground, nature reserve and improved access to surrounding open spaces.”