THE reclamation and redevelopment of a polluted former cokeworks is expected to start later this year.

The 62-hectare Lambton Cokeworks site, between Bournmoor, near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, and Shiney Row, will be taken over by English Partnerships, the Government-backed regeneration agency.

It plans to build 250 houses and a pub on the site and create a large recreational area that would be maintained by the recently formed Land Restoration Trust.

The cokeworks closed 20 years ago, and the land has also been used for mining, brick-making and gas production, leaving the site heavily contaminated.

English Partnerships plans to bring the site back into use in a £19m scheme through its £386.5m National Coalfields Programme, which aims to boost the economies of former mining areas.

It will be given the land by Sunderland City Council because it can access grants that the council can not.

The council said the money it would make from selling houses built on the site would not cover the cost of decontamination.

The agency's senior regeneration manager, Chris Munro, said: "We are now in the process of getting the agreement formalised.

"We envisage this will take a further two or three months and then work on site can begin in earnest.

"We hope to have a preferred contractor in place in the next few weeks, and planning approval for the housing in the next month.

"The aim is to transform this derelict eyesore into a facility that the local community can enjoy by 2007."