Councillor Paul Watson, Leader of Sunderland City Council and Phil Morgan, Director of Operations at Balfour Beatty, 'broke the ground' to officially start work on the project to realign local roads to prepare the Vaux site in Sunderland for future development.

The pair were joined by partners Neil Graham from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Paul Woolston from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NELEP).

The remodelling work on St Mary's Way and Livingstone Road, which runs alongside the key Vaux development site, is expected to be complete by spring 2014, with work to create a new public square in the heart of the city centre following on from this. The whole scheme will be finished by autumn 2014.

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The full cost of the scheme is £11.86 million, with £2.34 million from a successful bid to ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and £2.5 million from GPF (Growing Places Fund), which is managed by the NELEP.

Leader of Sunderland City Council, Councillor Paul Watson commented: "To be breaking ground on this hugely important scheme for the Sunderland and the city centre is a tremendous step forward towards achieving our long term vision, which is to have a vibrant and prosperous city centre. To achieve this we need more people living and working centrally and a productive central business district, improved retail offer, new public space and better pedestrian access onto Vaux will all support this.

"I'm pleased to be standing alongside our contractor Balfour Beatty and our funding partners from ERDF and the North East LEP. Working together I’m confident that we will deliver this ambitious scheme on time, which in turn will support the long-term economic growth and prosperity for Sunderland that is our goal."

(CD/IT)