East Lothian Council has celebrated the opening of a new housing development.

A total of 16 flats have been built at Rotary Court in Dunbar.

The £1.8m project was developed by local firm Hart Builders under a contract to purchase the completed houses.

Councillor Norman Hampshire officially opened the development on 20 August.

Dunbar's Rotary Club were also invited to attend the opening event as the development has been named after the club in recognition of the good work they’ve done locally over many years

The flats, which were completed in late June, have been added to the council's rented housing stock and let to people from the council's housing waiting list.

Over the past year, East Lothian Council has added 80 newly built homes to its council housing stock across the country.

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The Rotary Court site had previously been lying vacant and had not previously been developed. Planning permission was granted for the 0.4 hectares site in December 2012 and construction work began in July 2014.

The flats have two bedrooms and are built in blocks of four.

The homes have been built to meet the appropriate Housing for Varying Needs standards, to ensure good accessibility but in addition four of the ground-floor flats are provided with wet-floor showers to make them more accessible to people who are less mobile. They also benefit from very energy efficient heating systems and high levels of insulation.

Each of the properties has received £46,000 (a total of £736,000) in Council House Building Grant from the Scottish Government.

Councillor Norman Hampshire said: "Rotary Court is one of several social housing developments completing in the county this year. Rotary Court is beautifully laid out, with high quality homes really close to all the local amenities. It’s a great addition to Dunbar and I know that the tenants here are very happy in their new homes."

David Small, Hart Builders Managing Director added: "Hart Builders are delighted to have completed our latest development for East Lothian Council. Developed through our on-going partnership with the Council, Hart Builders have delivered the new homes through a turnkey arrangement, providing 16 highly energy efficient new homes."

(LM)