Village life starts here

IN the Second World War, the Burtonwood air base was the largest military headquarters in Europe, but now the vast tracts of vacant land are being re-used to create new job and homes.

The £1billion Omega development site, which straddles both sides of the M62, promises to create a staggering 24,000 jobs over the next decade - potentially the biggest new employment site in the UK.

On the southern end of the Burtonwood site, a whole new urban village is under construction, with the first residents already moved in.

In total, Chapelford Village will have 2,000 new homes hitting all sections of the market, from low-cost and shared ownership, to large, four and five bed detached.

A mix of developers are here, including David Wilson and locally-based Miller Homes, who showed their commitment by not only shifting their HQ to Burtonwood two years ago, but also by sponsoring Warrington Wolves.

Their technical director, Stephen Wielebski, said: "Warrington benefits because of its geography, and Chapelford Village is a major development which will make best advantage of a redundant brownfield site and proximity to the motorways. As a local builder we very much wanted to be involved and have thought very carefully about the properties we are building there.

"We are creating a whole new village that should have a clear identity and community spirit. There has already been huge interest in the site."

They are selling four bed mews houses here for £205,950 and, in a slight shift, are now building four and five bedroom detached homes, starting at around £280,000.

David Wilson has apartments from £143,000.

As well as housing, the village will eventually get a new primary school, new health centre and park and a new railway station to improve public transport links.