HOMES fit for heroes – and a playground for their children – were unveiled at the end of an £8million refurbishment programme for military housing in Colchester.

Defence Estates had “stripped down to bare brick” 136 homes on the St Michael’s estate, with the roofs, windows, kitchens, bathrooms and flooring replaced. They were also rewired and upgraded insulation was fitted.

Yesterday, mayor Sonia Lewis and Colonel Tom Fleetwood, commander of Colchester Garrison, visited some of the houses before officially opening the Earlswood Way playground, named Monty Park.

A decorated hero, Corporal Karl Jackson, of 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, lives in one of the refurbished houses with his wife Lucy and eight-month-old son Jake. Cpl Jackson was awarded the Military Cross after dragging a wounded colleague to safety during heavy fighting in Afghanistan in 2006 and is preparing to return to the war-torn country for his third tour later this year.

He said: “Now when I go away, I know my family has a lovely house. The last thing you want is for your wife to be struggling at home when you’re on operations, because it just makes it harder to focus on what you’re doing.”

Mrs Jackson said “the whole house is a pleasure to be in” and particularly praised the spacious kitchen.

Mayor Lewis said: “These are perfect family homes and worthy of our troops, who deserve nice homes to come back to after the demanding work they do.”

Col Fleetwood said the refurbishment work was “much needed and greatly appreciated” and the playground was the best he had seen on military housing estates.

He said: “The home is very important for soldiers and if you are serving far away, you need the reassurance your family is being looked after.”

The refurbishment work, which started in March 2009 with the last house completed last month, was carried out by Modern Housing Solutions. Paul Wilson, of Defence Estates, said: “We see these as being homes fit for heroes and this is the standard we are looking to upgrade all our housing to.

“There are no immediate plans to upgrade any more of our homes in Colchester, but we constantly look at our stock and do work on those in most need.”