WORK is due to start next month on a development of ten environmentally-friendly bungalows on a Darlington estate.

The homes, in Edgemoor Road, Firthmoor, are being built by Three Rivers Housing Association and should be ready by the end of the year.

They have been designed using green materials to provide maximum natural warmth in order to conserve energy.

The homes are part of a shared ownership scheme, where tenants part-buy and part-rent the bungalows.

A meeting of Firthmoor Community Partnership Board heard that the cost was likely to be about £55 a week, plus a service charge.

The meeting also heard that 109 homes have been reserved on the estate's new Moorfield development, a partnership between Barratt Homes, Haslam Homes, Darlington Borough Council and the board.

There have been 65 legal completions on houses on the site and 91 exchanges of contracts.