Children at York's Tang Hall Primary School will take centre stage alongside local hero Rick Witter on Friday (March 22) when they help open the city's ground-breaking, factory-built apartments at Sixth Avenue.

Children at the school have watched with fascination as Yorkon constructed the first multi-storey, factory-built apartments outside London over the last eight months on a site just across the road from the school building.

Yorkon is a subsidiary of local firm Portakabin and the flats are a result of a partnership between City of York Council and Yorkshire Housing. Both organisations were keen to get local children involved in the project by allowing them to name the development.

Most of the school's 350 children took part in the competition and the winning entry - Poplar Tree Gardens - was submitted by both seven-year-old Emily Burns and Darrel Green, 11.

Now Emily and Darrel, with the Shed Seven star and York boy Rick Witter and Yorkshire Housing chair David Fitzgerald, will have the honour of performing the official opening ceremony as part of a series events on Friday morning.

Paul Prest, head teacher at Tang Hall Primary School, said, "We have all watched this development take shape with fascination over the last few months.

"Some of the younger children have been over there taking photos at different stages as part of a curriculum project on change and I know everyone has been very excited about having a little piece of history-in-the-making on their doorstep."

The school's PTA got a cash boost as a result of the children's involvement in the project and Emily and Darrel have each been given a gift voucher as reward for their creativity. The name of the flats development reflects the poplar trees which border the former Tang Hall Canteen site.

Councillor Viv Kind, the council's executive member for housing, said, "We are all delighted at the school's interest which has enabled everyone involved in the project to forge links with them. The speed of completion and minimisation of disruption to residents is an important feature of this kind of innovative building technique and it was important to show local people what was going on there."

Friday morning's official opening programme includes ribbon cutting and sign unveiling events, a balloon race and an Easter Fayre at the school.

Peter Atkinson, group property director, for Yorkshire Housing, said, "Yorkshire Housing is proud of Poplar Tree Gardens. The development embodies all that we are about: it is customer focused, it is bold, it is innovative and it represents a close working relationship with our partners"

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Notes for Editors: developed by the Yorkshire Housing Group in partnership with City of York Council, the Sixth Avenue Apartments were manufactured in York by Portakabin subsidiary, Yorkon, and designed by Cartwright Pickard Architects. The homes will be managed by Ryedale Housing Association, a member of the Yorkshire Housing Group. The apartments were craned onto pre-prepared foundations on a brownfield site in just a few days, complete with bathrooms, kitchens, plumbing, heating, doors and windows. by employing a more innovative approach to construction and a partnering arrangement, the development programme for the Sixth Avenue Apartments has been reduced by around 15 months, helping to address the serious shortfall in the number of affordable homes in York. City of York Council currently has 4,500 households on their housing waiting list. The four-storey £2m development comprises 24 high quality apartments providing a mix of 3, 2 and 1 bedroom homes modular construction involves the manufacture and fitting out a building in a controlled factory environment, while the foundations are progressed on site. The modules are then delivered to the site by road and craned into positions. The benefits of the process include: work on site is safer, quieter and cleaner programme times are reduced by up to 50 per cent costs are controlled quality is guaranteed disruption to the local community is minimised earlier occupation is possible construction is not affected by adverse weather conditions. the tenants for Sixth Avenue have been identified by City of York Council and Yorkshire Housing from people who have chosen to live in the scheme and who have a housing need. there is a major shortage of affordable housing in York. The average house price in the city is £105,000, which would require income of £30,000 pa in order to obtain a mortgage.