A HERITAGE grant of more than £500,000 has been confirmed to improve an historical part of Darlington.

English Heritage has confirmed that Darlington Borough Council's bid for money to improve the Northgate area of town has been successful.

The money is part of a three-year Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme and will provide £90,700 for the town in the first year.

The grants are designed to improve, through conservation-led work, historic areas in England that have fallen into disrepair.

Money is given to projects that aim to maintain local employment, provide new homes and encourage inward investment in an area. Businesses in Northgate will be asked to apply for a slice of the money to make improvements to their premises.

The money from English Heritage will be matched by the council and officials are hoping the sums for the second and third years of the project will be as much as the first grant.

The area covered by the conservation work will stretch from Central House on Northgate to the High Northgate railway bridge.

David Lyonette, the council's cabinet member for economic regeneration, said "It's good news for the town. We were confident that our bid would be successful but now we've had the green light we can look forward to working with property owners on High Northgate and Northgate to unlock the immense potential of the area."

The money will mainly be used as grants to help property owners to carry out building repairs, re-instate original architectural features, improve shop fronts and transform empty space above shops into new homes and businesses. Owners will be able to qualify for up to 60 per cent of the cost of approved building works