FENCING and scaffolding which has blighted an historic Wellington town centre site for the past year was fully removed just in time for Christmas.

Cornhill, a pedestrian route running behind the Wetherspoon public house from Fore Street to North Street, used to have a row of small businesses in decades past.

It has now been redeveloped as part of a larger project to deliver 42 low-cost homes on land stretching from Cornhill behind Fore Street to North Street car park.

The former Cornhill business premises are now social housing units, although some traditional shop front designs have been incorporated into the look of the row of properties.

They include listed features such as beams and unusual window shapes.

Wellington Cornhill historic shops town centre
Shop frontage features have been retained in redeveloped Cornhill, Wellington, ( )

Work started on the development more than two years ago and now the final tenants of the new housing are expected to move in by the end of next month, all of them being local to Wellington.

The Westcountry’s largest housing association LiveWest has been working with Freemantle and Classic Builders to develop the site.

Twenty-six properties are being offered for social rent and 16 as shared ownership, all of them at below market rates.