WORK on building more than 650 homes at Jurston Farm in Wellington is now expected to get under way around September.

The start of the project has been delayed partly because of extended negotiations with the land owners over the price of the land.

David Lohfink, planning director with the developer, C G Fry, said: “We are at the moment negotiating the land deal with the landowners. It always takes a bit of time – you have to value the land and exercise the option agreement we have to buy the land in.”

He added that a revised planning application for phase one, incorporating an extra 17 homes, would be submitted in the next few weeks.

The first phase of the development will see 193 homes built with the first homes coming out of the ground next spring and going on sale in spring 2019. The developer plans to build about 45 to 50 homes a year, the first phase taking about four years to construct.

Hedgerows were taken out under licence from Natural England earlier this year and a large roundabout costing almost £1 million and access roads, which are waiting for technical approval from the county highway authority, will be constructed before any homes are built.

Mr Lohfink added: “The roundabout is going in at the bottom of Jurston Lane, as it is now, and the first section of road is north into the site. We will be building a chunk of houses in front of The Elms first and working our way north from The Elms up the back of Beech Hill towards the square in the middle of the scheme.”