HUNDREDS of people braved the snow to see for themselves how their £30m estate will look.

Work has begun on creating the new Mandale Estate in Thornaby and yesterday an exhibition was opened featuring a model of what the redeveloped estate will look like.

Residents also had the chance to see artists' impressions and detailed plans about the housing complex.

More than 100 houses have already been demolished on the Mandale Estate and preparation work has started on building new ones.

A total of 800 homes will be built. Some will be for rent and some will be sold at low cost as part of an affordable housing scheme devised by the Nomad Housing Association and Stockton Borough Council. Money has been granted by the Government via the Housing Corporation. Other homes will be built by property developers Barratt Homes and Haslam Homes to be sold at a profit.

Graham Brown, housing services director at Nomad, was at the exhibition yesterday. He said: "The people of the area have been very supportive and the fact that 150 people have turned up so far and in this weather shows how important this is to the community. There has been some frustration about how long all this is taking to come to fruition, but work has now started and real progress is being made."

All the houses will be designed to fit in with the newly developed Mandale Park.

The exhibition was held at the Robert Atkinson Community Centre from 2pm until 6pm.