A council has purchased 26 properties at a new-build estate which will be used as affordable homes.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council has snapped up the buildings at Sutherland Park, in Boundary Road, Hythe, which are part of an 86-home development.

The New Roddy Homes project, to be built on the former Smiths Medical campus next to Reachfields stadium, the home of Hythe Town FC, also includes a 66-bed care home and was given the green light in May last year.

Of the properties purchased by the council, 20 will be flats let to tenants on the local authority’s housing list at affordable rents.

The remaining six houses will be available for shared ownership, with both sets of properties - which will also be 100% fossil fuel-free - to be available on the brownfield plot in 2026.

The homes were bought using funds from the council’s housing revenue account.

The local authority's leader and Hythe ward councillor, Cllr Jim Martin, said: “Affordable homes are needed across the district, but these are the first to be built in Hythe for many years".

Out of the 26 flats, 14 will be one-bedroom while the rest will be three-bedroom and two-bedroom.

The remaining 60 dwellings will range from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom townhouses.

Enabling works on the site, which has been derelict since 2019 and labelled an eyesore, started in June.

The medical campus, which employed more than 500 people shut in 2017 and was demolished two years later.

The response to project receiving the green light was mixed, with some welcoming the new homes, while raising concerns about an increase in traffic in the area.