AN estate undergoing a multi-million pound facelift is looking to see what the future will hold when the work is completed.

The seven-year regeneration scheme, which is pumping £13m into the once run-down Sherburn Road Estate, Dur-ham, ends in March 2003.

Next week, everyone involved in the project, which has transformed the area, will discuss the way forward, once the funding ends.

Residents, volunteers and organisations involved in the Sherburn Road Regeneration (SRB) Initiative will meet at St Aidan's College on Monday.

One of the key issues will be how to ensure that the achievements of the regeneration initiative can be maintained and built on.

Estate resident Harry Appleby, chairman of the new showpiece Pelaw View Centre, said it was vitally important that plans were formulated now.

"It is important we have a framework in which to work after the programme has ended. We will want to maintain what has been achieved and to build on it.

"Thanks to SRB initiatives and partnerships between the private and public sectors and the residents, Sherburn Road has changed beyond recognition and it is attracting people who left it years ago."

The scheme, involves several organisations and is led by Durham City Council. It is funded by the Single Regeneration Budget.

It has tackled crime, housing, environmental improvements, unemployment and training and has seen new facilities, including the Pelaw View Centre, built for estate residents