AFTER more than 30 years without improvement, £200,000 is being spent updating council properties.

Bungalows for elderly people in Tennyson Gardens, in the Poets Corner area of Park East, in Darlington, are to be modernised.

The houses will be rewired and kitchens and bathrooms replaced, plus new central heating in three or four properties.

Housing officer Tony Martin told residents at the Poets Corner Neighbourhood Watch meeting that work was starting this week and will be finished at the end of June.

"The sequence of the work will be the rewiring one week, then the next week they will take out the kitchen and do the kitchen and bathroom. Then a plasterer will come to skim over everything and then the wall tiles and floor tiles will be laid," he said.

Councillor Glen Reynolds said: "There will be disruption but, at the end of the day, this is the first time there has been a major development like this for Tennyson Gardens since 1973."

More parking is also to be provided in Tennyson Gardens, with two parking bays containing six spaces each at either end of the green, as requested by residents.

Mr Martin said the authority was waiting for detailed drawings to be provided before work could start, probably after the modernisation work to the inside of the properties was completed.