The mayor of Saltash, cllr Bob Austin, cut the first turf at Glanville Terrace on Monday morning for the start of 31 affordable new homes to be built by the Guiness Trust and their contractors, Leadbitter. The two sites were granted planning permission in the summer of 2007 but, due to the presence of slow-worms on the site, work could not begin until they had been carefully moved to another location. The Guiness Trust commissioned Devon Wildlife Consultants to move the slow-worms to a local nature reserve. The reptiles were taken to Churchtown Farm Community Nature Reserve. Devon Wildlife monitored the site for several months, and calculated that a total of 1,031 reptiles had been relocated. They also found some newts. Sian Radmore, project manager at the Guiness Trust, said: 'After much hard work by the trust and Caradon District Council, we are thrilled to see these two schemes start on site. We believe they will provide good quality, affordable housing to the people of Saltash.' The homes are part-funded by the Housing Corporation and Caradon council, and are due to be completed by spring/summer of next year.