WORK to improve life in a former East Durham pit village has started.

Community leaders in the Deaf Hill ward of Easington District Council have been calling for years for money to breathe new life into the area.

Now improvements are being carried out in Trimdon Colliery, and more are in prospect as a bid for funding for a scheme at neighbouring Deaf Hill is being drawn up.

Work started last week on a scheme, funded by a £24,500 grant from the Groundwork Trust, to clean up a site in Windsor Street, Trimdon Colliery.

The work will entail landscaping the area, improving the environment and making car parking bays.

The parish council is giving £12,000 towards the clean-up, and for iron gates and steel railings to be installed at the village cemetery.

As well as this scheme, a £400,000 bid is being made to the National Lottery for a project of improvements to be carried out at Deaf Hill