A TROUBLE-HIT estate is to be bulldozed and rebuilt in a multi-million pound bid for a fresh start.

The Burnmoor Close and Blayberry Close area of Redcar has been plagued with declining housing stock and serious anti-social behaviour over the past few years.

But Coast and Country Housing has announced ambitious plans for the regeneration of the run-down estate, including demolition of 220 properties.

The estate will benefit from a new range of mixed-tenure properties, which will be built to replace the structurally-poor buildings and badly-designed estate layout.

The company is currently consulting with residents to find out what kind of improvements they would like to see on their estate.

The consultation exercise is looking at all aspects of the regeneration process, including estate layout, the environment, visual impact, the mix of property types, parking and how to design housing in a way to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

On Tuesday, a BB gun, a large crossbow, a machete and two large hunting knives were seized from a house in Blayberry Close, during an Operation Sabre raid.

John Cooper, chairman of the Burnmoor/Blayberry Residents Action group (Brag), believes most residents will welcome the scheme.

He said: "A few people will have reservations about where they will move to but, in time, people will come round. I like it here myself, but the design of the estate, with all its rat-runs, meant something major was needed."

In order to upgrade the estate and meet residents' aspirations, all of the existing properties will be replaced with buildings designed and laid out in a manner that reflects modern housing needs.

Residents will be given generous compensation and relocation packages to enable them to move from the estate, during the building work, and an option to return to the area when work is complete.

Home owners and tenants will benefit from the packages offered.

A study commissioned by Coast and Country revealed that nearly 75 per cent of residents were dissatisfied with the estate and wanted to see radical, large-scale improvements.

Housing operations director Ronny Harris said: "This estate has faced some serious social problems in the past and our regeneration plan aims to address them. We are working with residents to create a blueprint of how the estate will look and initial feedback has been very useful."