Pictured: (l-r) Anna Mimms, BEST, Peter Conboy, Blueprint, and Chris Spencer, BEST, with some of the workers

Specialist regeneration developer Blueprint has teamed up with a social enterprise to provide a new public footpath from its Green Street in the Meadows eco development to the neighbouring Memorial Gardens.

Work to construct the path is underway and due for completion in January.

It will provide a route from the new road in the Green Street development - Hunter Street - into the gardens. The new path is being constructed at a very gentle gradient to make access to the gardens from Hunter Street accessible to all. 

The project is being carried out by BEST (Broxtowe Enterprise Skills and Training), a social enterprise that employs and trains local people who have struggled to find work. Through the project's subsidiary construction company BESTbuild, employees get on the job training and an opportunity to be part of the economic growth of one of Nottingham's poorest communities.

Peter Conboy, a development director at Blueprint, said: "We wanted to give an opportunity to a Nottingham-based organisation that employs and trains local people in construction skills to do this project. We made contact with BEST through the Meadows Partnership Trust, who have played a big part in the Green Street development."

Anna Mimms, BEST'sChief Executive, said: "We are going from strength to strength, and it's tremendous to be able to work with Blueprint and secure this new construction contract. Getting local people into work can completely change their lives, giving them hope for the future and bringing more prosperity to the neighbourhood and the city."

Green Street, a mixture of 38 three-and-four bed contemporary town houses, bucked market trends by being snapped up at a phenomenal rate, establishing the demand for a new era of design-led eco homes.

Following the overwhelming success of the sustainable development, Blueprint is now working on plans for another urban eco-homes project on a city centre site.