Parking Provision Gets a Facelift

A MILLION-POUND cash injection is set to breathe new life into Erimus Housing garages across Middlesbrough.

We are pouring cash into improving parking provision and garaging for our tenants.

More than £1.2m will be spent over the next three years to boost safe parking for tenants, one of their top priorities.

Bob Brady, Chair of Erimus Housing's Board, said: "Carrying out environmental works was one of the key promises we made our tenants.

"I am pleased we are now moving on to garage improvement works, which will have a positive impact on the lives of our residents."

Erimus Housing inherited more than 1,000 garages from Middlesbrough Council when we took over ownership of all the council's housing stock in November 2004.

Some had deteriorated badly over the years, which resulted in a survey of all our garage stock being carried out.

Some were demolished immediately and of the 983 that were left, a further 53 were found to be unsalvageable. These will now be demolished and the remaining 15 tenants will be offered an alternative.

The rest of the garages will go into an investment plan, which will be integrated into the main improvement programme on the estates.

Mr Brady said: "We knew we had to do a full review of our garages to understand whether they were still popular and could be viable and whether residents still wanted that type of parking provision.

"We looked at structural issues, repair needs and popularity. This has taken some time but now we have agreed a strategy for investing in our garage sites.

"Over the next three years, we will see all our garages brought up to safe and secure standards."