HOUSING at Buckshaw Village is beginning to take shape, with the first residents already moved into the multi-million pound scheme on the site of the former Royal Ordnance Factory.

Over the next 12 years, around 2,000 properties will be built by joint developers Redrow and Barratt homes.

The village centre is complete with a clock tower and rotunda at the centrepiece, and shops, townhouses and apartments surrounding it.

Christine Aitken, sales director for Redrow Homes, said: "We are at an exciting stage in the development and have completed around 200 property sales, with around 150 now occupied. We have also had success in letting the retail units with such businesses as a hairdresser's, an estate agent's and a general store all signing up leases."

And she said that negotiations were ongoing with breweries with a view to get a couple of pub/restaurants opening in the near future.

It's not just people putting down roots, one-third of Buckshaw Village's 395 acres is dedicated to open space, landscaping and natural flora and fauna. Some 28,000 trees will be planted of which about 4,500 will come from a special seed and sapling collection.