Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer officially opened Braddan Commissioners’ ‘Mullen Doway’ flats this week.

The new flats replace the 38 cottages in Cronkbourne Village and sit on the site of the old Snugborough Farmhouse in Union Mills which had fallen into disrepair.

After a 12-month delay in their completion, the building was handed over to the authority in January 2022.

As part of his visit, Sir John met with one of the commissioners’ long standing tenants, Sylvia Lyon, who has moved into the new flats.

Braddan Commissioners say that the new site has enabled them to ‘downsize some existing tenants and move others into more suitable accommodation’.

The flats also feature all electric heating and a heat recovery system.

Each of the four blocks of flats have been named after notable local figures including artist Archibald Knox, the Gibb brothers who formed the Bee Gees and once lived in Union Mills, Nelly Brennan who was the matron of the first hospital in Douglas and Mrs B Porter, the first female commissioner in the island who was elected to Braddan in 1955.