Phase one of a multi-million pound house construction and roads project in Co Antrim has begun.

Details of the £400m 'Ballyclare West' scheme, which could mean the construction of more than 2,000 new homes in the area over the next 20 years, were first unveiled last August.

Offering a much-needed fillip for jobs in the beleaguered building trade, the first phase of new housing has already been approved by Planning Service. Work on the development, which is now under way, will see 159 of the new homes built on land off the Rashee Road - 110 semi-detached, 35 detached and 14 terrace properties.

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While construction of the planned by-pass road won't get the go-ahead until after the publication of the long-awaited Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan, possibly due later this year, the Newtownabbey Times has reported that the developer behind the ambitious project, Dungiven-based businessman Kevin Lynch, is hoping that work on the first phase 'relief road' between Templepatrick Road to Doagh Road will get under way by this August.

The second phase of the scheme - Doagh Road to Rashee Road - will then follow on at a later date.

(BMcC/GK)