Badnells Pit: Work starts on new estate to be called Boulters Meadow

More than three decades since it was first proposed, work has now started to build a housing estate on the former Badnells Pit toxic dump.

Foundations will be laid for 448 homes within the next few weeks, with houses going above ground by the end of April and the first properties released for sale by the summer.

This morning developer Shanly Homes announced the Blackamoor Lane site has been rechristened Boulters Meadow.

The name was chosen following a public vote with the winning name receiving 155 votes and Dunmede Meadow and Raymill Meadow each receiving 121 votes.

Shanly had agreed to donate £1 for every vote cast to SportsAble.

Yesterday representatives were at Boulters Lock to officially announce the new name and hand over a rounded up figure of £500 to the Maidenhead charity.

Kerl Haslam from SportsAble said: "We are thrilled by the generous donation and are planning to put it towards funding our 29th annual SportsAble Games and will be purchasing new medals and trophies for our competitors."

Shanly invested millions of pounds and hundreds of man hours into getting permission to remediate and build on the site. The land was badly contaminated with solvents and asbestos after being used as an unlicensed dump in the 1950-70s.

Residents and the council fought hard against the remediation and development but both were given permission by the government following lengthy public inquiries.

Contractors McArdle began the remediation of the site in November 2010 and finished in December last year.

During that time 190 complaints were made by residents, mostly about 'foul odours' and 'unbearable dust'.

The estate will be made up of one and two bedroom apartments, starting at £190,000 and two, three and four bedroom homes, starting at £290,000.

Work was due to start on building them in December but delayed because some details were still being finalised with the council.

Today a spokeswoman for Shanly confirmed workmen from Southampton-based firm Aeropark Development Ltd had been on site since March 2.