Councillors have given the green light to investing £46m in regeneration schemes and council house improvements in East Durham over the next three years.
District of Easington Council has allocated £16m of its Capital Investment Programme to support its priority initiatives for 2008/09, with a further £15m committed for both 2009/10 and 2010/11.
As a result, over the next financial year £7.6m will go towards bringing more council-owned houses up to Decent Homes standards through East Durham Homes, as well as carrying out other improvement works to properties and local neighbourhoods.
Four million will finance other housing improvement schemes, including a major initiative to support area renewal programmes in Easington Colliery and Dawdon, together with support for disability adaptations and home insulation grants.
A further £2.5m will be invested in regeneration schemes such as East Durham Link Road, the proposed Geothermal Research, Educational and Training Facility (GREAT), and work towards further revitalising Peterlee and Seaham town centres, and Seaham’s North Dock.
Richard Prisk, District of Easington Council’s Director of Regeneration and Development, said: “Within our corporate plan we have identified the schemes which we believe are essential for the continued economic regeneration and prosperity of the district.
“District of Easington Council has now allocated the resources to ensure progress on these initiatives will be maintained while a new local government structure is introduced into County Durham.”
Good progress is being made with the Capital Investment Programme for this financial year, with almost £14m having been committed.
Due to this expenditure, 101 council-owned houses in Seaham, Peterlee and Horden have been improved to Decent Homes Standard, with work on a further 1,600 properties have had new windows and doors fitted and improvements carried out to heating and electrics.
In addition, almost 500 homes in the district have been insulated and £350,000 has been spent on adaptations to houses with disabled occupants.
A further £1.8m has also been put towards regeneration projects in the district including the redevelopment of St John’s Square and North Dock in Seaham and the new A19 link road.
News article created on the 16 April 2008