CEMENT mixers and diggers have become a familiar site in a previously neglected area of Bishop Auckland, as it undergoes a housing boom.

In recent years, more houses have been demolished than built to the south of the town at Auckland Park and Coundon Grange.

Last year, about three-quarters of the 390 homes in Eldon Lane were described as unfit for habitation or in serious disrepair and 50 were in line for demolition.

But now the tide has turned, as modernisation work has begun on the properties in a £2m renewal scheme and there are numerous plans to build private homes in the area.

Last week, Wear Valley District Council received a planning application from Broseley Homes to build 22 homes on land near Douglas Crescent, Auckland Park.

Another application, to renew outline planning permission for 15 homes at Leeholme was also received.

On the other side of the A688, work is expected to start soon on 149 homes on former agricultural land at Bracks Farm, once developer Bryant Homes finish installing a roundabout on the bypass.

Assistant director of planning at Wear Valley District Council, Dave Townsend, said development work would add a feeling of confidence in the area.

Dene Valley councillor Chris Foote Wood said there were at least six more sites being developed for housing, with possibly more to follow.

He said: "It's something we were pushing for because we were previously Category D and there was no housing allowed.

"Dene Valley is a honey pot for private housing developers because it means building houses in a village type situation that are two to three minutes from a town centre by car, and that is what people like."

Coundon ward councillor Neil Stonehouse said the council had also devised a development brief to attract builders to Coundon and Leeholme.

"We were concerned that developers are moving to other areas, like St Helens, but not here, so we devised a development brief. We pass that on to developers and it assists them to plan and puts ideas in front of them," he said.

But not everyone has welcomed the housing boom. People living near the Bracks Farm development fought the application for ten years.