A ONCE deprived area of Darlington is to be transformed with new facilities giving residents more opportunities than ever before.

Work began to improve the Skerne Park estate more than five years ago with investment under the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) programme.

This funding finished last year, but now the aspirations of residents are to be raised further with a new centre aimed at giving youngsters the best possible start in life, and adults the opportunities and choices they need to improve their living standards.

Various community groups are working in partnership on the project, which will be the first of its kind in the area when it opens in September 2005.

The partners will provide adult education, childcare, schooling, access to health professionals, and information and advice on parenting, on one site.

A £2.9m primary school for 420 children is to be built on the existing Skerne Park Junior School site, in Ribble Drive.

Alongside it will be a £650,000 nursery that will eventually offer 52 places and create 24 jobs.

Diane Woodcock, from the Skerne Park Community Enterprise Association, said: "This is all geared towards the Government's childcare agenda. It sees employment as the route out of poverty, and providing nurseries in disadvantaged areas should allow more people to go out to train, or to work and improve their standards of living."

Marjorie Knowles, also from the association, which will provide the nursery, said it would offer wrap-around child care from 8am to 6pm.

She said: "It will assist parents in that if they have more than one child, one at school and one of nursery age, they can take them to one site, rather than rushing to two different places and then trying to get to work."

Also key to the new centre is SureStart.

Lynne Henderson, Sure-Start programme manager, said it provided help and support for families with children under four.

This involves a variety of services, including access to quality play facilities, promoting healthy eating and food hygiene, and easy access to health professionals and practical advice on parenting issues.

"It's about people being able to access services as and when they need to," she said.

"Parents should not have to knock on lots of different doors for this. They should be able to get it from one service delivery point."

A £430,000 adult learning centre is also to be created on the site.

Ruth Bernstein, Darlington Borough Council's head of libraries and community learning, said 25 per cent of adults in the Park East area of the town had problems with literacy and numeracy.

By providing an adult learning centre, not only will it enable those people to access help, it will also offer a variety of courses that could include childcare, administration and computing, or other subjects, depending on what local people wanted to learn.

The UK online centre in the junior school will also be moved into the adult learning centre.

Mrs Bernstein said: "The adult learning centre will see us working with local parents, which links into their potential to go back to work, made possible through the childcare provision at the nursery."

Mrs Knowles said: "This whole development will change the aspirations of the people on the estate. It is about giving them choices that they don't perhaps currently have."