A £2.4 MILLION repair scheme to restore homes in the Whitefield area of Nelson has been given the go-ahead by councillors.

Doors, windows, gutters, pipes and stonework will be repaired at 106 houses in nine terraces in St Mary's Street, Every Street, Bishop Street, Maurice Street, Victoria Street, Manchester Road and Macleod Street. The money, which amounts to more than £20,000 per home, will be drawn from the Elevate East Lancashire housing market renewal pathfinder cash announced by the Government.

Council officers, along with English Heritage, also hope to draw up plans to renovate back streets in the area, working with United Utilities which manage the sewers below the alleys.

Repair work scheme is expected to start in June and finish by March 2005. The homes, which are mostly occupied, are in St Mary's Conservation Area, adjacent to the proposed clearance area where the council planned to demolish rows of homes.

Heritage bodies supported residents in their campaign against demolition as many of the 19th Century homes were of historic significance because of the development of Nelson in the late 1900s.

The council's plans were overturned by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott last September and the area is now being given special emphasis in an Area Development Framework being drawn up to map out the future of the whole of Nelson.

At a meeting of the Nelson Committee, councillors welcomed the repair scheme but said work was also needed in the back streets.

Chairman Coun Mohammed Iqbal asked council officers to explore the possibility of setting up a separate scheme with English Heritage to restore them.

He said: "There's no point spending £20,000 a house and leaving the back streets a complete mess. If we are committed and English Heritage are committed then United Utilities must be committed along with us."

Urban renewal officer Paul Lloyd said: "We will be talking to English Heritage and United Utilities and trying to draw up a separate scheme for repairs to the back streets."