WORK to improve the centre of a run-down former mining village begins next week.

Contractors for Durham County Council will move in to start on a package of improvements for West Road in Annfield Plain, near Stanley.

The £89,500 scheme will spruce up the street scene with Yorkstone paving and setts, granite kerbs and new street lighting. Bollards will be installed to protect the new kerbs from parked vehicles.

The first phase, expected to take five weeks to complete, will cover West Road from the post office to its junction with Front Street.

It is funded by the county council's Urban Renaissance and Local Transport Plan budgets, backed by grants from Derwentside District Council and English Heritage.

This will be followed by phase two, a £121,000 project to finish West Road and cover part of Front Street, which is due to start in July and will be finished by the end of August. This second phase will include a lay-by outside local shops.

The scheme aims to build on work to upgrade shop fronts in Annfield Plain that was funded through the Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme.

A similar project to improve the street scene in Bearpark, near Durham, is also under way.