MURALS designed by Newport art and design students have been given pride of place at the entrance of a housing development in the city.

The designs, produced by students at Coleg Gwent’s City of Newport Campus, have just been unveiled at Loftus Garden Village, a development of 250 homes close to the city centre.

Lovell, the local developer building the new homes, invited students on their BTEC Level 3 diploma course and Welsh Baccalaureate to produce artwork for display on the construction hoardings.

They then took inspiration from sources such as the story of Ruby Loftus, the Newport woman who was famously the subject of the 1943 painting Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring. The housing development has also been named in her honour.

Course leader Sian Dinham said: “We are thrilled with the final results and it is great to see the boards on display. The artwork creates a place of interest and hopefully will allow different generations and community members to share in the poignant history of the site.”

Bernadette Vickery, Lovell community liaison officer, said: “We absolutely love the creative results of this community collaboration. The finished artworks show huge flair and imagination, with the students responding sensitively to the brief we gave them.”

Lovell is currently building the third phase of the development, which has been designed to encourage healthy, sustainable living with tree-lined streets, parks, kitchen gardens and a community orchard.