Christmas is set to arrive four months earlier for a town's vandal plagued traders.

Shop keepers at Eston, near Middlesbrough, have endured vandalism, arson attacks and break-ins over many months.

Now a massive town centre redevelopment is set to go ahead with 20 units in the embattled High Street poised for demolition to make way for a new supermarket.

Councillors, residents and shoppers alike are welcoming a proposal by food store chain Aldi to build a shop in the town centre - a planning application which is being recommended for approval by officials to a meeting of Redcar and Cleveland Council's planning committee on Wednesday.

Eston postmaster Dave Whitehouse said: "All I can is, it is about time. With the precinct it has just been a steady decline because of the vandals. It has got to the stage where a lot of locals won't come into the precinct and it's getting worse and worse.''

Ann Higgins, chairwoman of Eston Residents Association, says the redevelopment will be the turning point for the town.

She commented: "Everyone has waited a long time for this. We are delighted.

It is to the credit of the residents who have stood by the community but the biggest credit of all must go to the business people who have suffered but shown loyalty by sticking by the community. I hope this will be the turning point for the town.''

Coun George Dunning, lead member with Redcar and Cleveland Council for regeneration and a local councillor, said: "We very much welcome the fact that the planning application is going to committee on the 28th; it has has been a very long and tortuous road. We have had to deal with 17 businesses, relocation and different landlords.''

He said part of the precinct earmarked for demolition: "It has been a pretty derelict part for sometime. I hope the businesses that are there will now be encouraged to stay which new ones will be attracted to come. "Only in the last week we have had problems with one of the derelict shops. Children have been in vandalising the place.''

He can foresee no obstacle to the Aldi application receiving approval on Wednesday and hopes to see the redevelopment take shape in the New Year.