Isle of Man: Residents move into £5.8m housing complex

The new Mayfield complex contains 37 flats

A new £5.8 million sheltered housing complex in Ramsey is "more like a hotel or a fancy apartment block", a local authority clerk has said.

Residents have moved into the Mayfield site, on Queen's Pier Road, which was built to replace the Cooil Ny Marrey facility.

Funded by northern local authorities, the complex contains 37 new apartments.

Mark Close, of the Ramsey and Northern Districts Housing Committee, said: "Who would not want to live here?"

At the official opening of the three-story complex on Friday, the clerk told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that "sheltered housing was a really good type of public sector housing for older persons".

The new Mayfield complex was opened by former residents of Cooil Ny Marrey

'An upgrade'

A mix of 27 one-bed, and 10 two-bed flats were constructed as part of the project, which began in 2018.

They have been made available to those on shared housing waiting lists, as well as the residents who have already moved in from Cooil Ny Marrey.

Paid for through loans from central government, the new block was built on land transferred by Ramsey Commissioners in 2016 to the housing committee, which is run by a number of local authorities.

Jackie Faragher, the Northern Housing Member for Andreas Commissioners, said the Cooil Ny Marrey site, built in the 1980s, was getting tired and "it was definitely time for an upgrade".