Holy Island scheme wins Green Apple

A Durham housing organisation has won an international award for an environmental scheme carried out on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

Four Housing Group was awarded an International Green Apple Environment Award, presented by The Green Organisation, for its affordable housing scheme at Green Lane, Holy Island. This follows the Group’s successful win of the regional Gold Green Apple Award and adds to a host of other development awards won during 2011.

The award was presented by The Green Organisation at their 18th annual awards ceremony at the House of Commons during November.

“There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing on The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, and an unwritten law to protect its environmental culture and heritage,” the judges said. “This development features a unique foundation system to protect sensitive archaeology for future study, and a flexibility to allow for the changing needs of growing families.”

The scheme has provided four much-needed three-bedroom homes to enable local people to continue living on the Island. The Community Land Trust was the first in the country to receive funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Four Housing Group worked to help develop the new homes on Holy Island, which is designated entirely as a rural exceptional site. As part of the partnership Berwick Borough Housing, Four Housing’s subsidiary housing association operating in Northumberland, provides housing management support and a 24-hour repair service.

The Green Apple Awards are presented annually in recognition of companies, councils and communities carrying out projects that enhance the environment and there were more than 500 nominations this year. The award-winning project will be featured in the next Green Book, the world’s only work of reference on environmental best practice.