DEMOLITION work has started on a run-down street in Ferryhill Station.

Most of Chapel Row, where 23 out of 25 houses have been declared unfit for habitation, will be demolished in the next few weeks.

Sedgefield Borough Council has set aside £250,000 to demolish and landscape the street as part of environmental improvements.

The work starts on Monday and is expected to take six to eight weeks to complete.

Resident Gladys Hall, who lives in the only house in Chapel Row which is not being demolished, said: "This is very good news. The houses have been in such a state for so long and we are just hoping everything goes to plan."

The demolitions will not affect homes in Trafalgar Street and Nelson Street.