After years of cold draughts, damp and condensation the residents of sheltered housing accommodation in Bradwell are finally getting new windows and doors.

Eastern Daily Press: Sheltered housing tenants in the area who will benefit from the work. L-R: Stanley and Dorothy Hopwood, Olwen Smith, Cllr Sylvia Pratt, Michael Faircloth and Harry McGee.Sheltered housing tenants in the area who will benefit from the work. L-R: Stanley and Dorothy Hopwood, Olwen Smith, Cllr Sylvia Pratt, Michael Faircloth and Harry McGee. (Image: Archant)

The much anticipated and, for many, long overdue work to install double glazed windows and external doors at Great Yarmouth Borough Council's bungalows got underway this week.

Sheltered accommodation tenants at 210 properties in the area of Ecclestone Close and Bunnewell Avenue have been calling for the improvements for more than a decade, but were told there was no money.

Now the council is investing £300,000 in the homes and said it is able to pay out following changes made to the council housing funding system in April 2012.

The borough put together a new 30-year business plan in light of the government changes and said it is now able to reinvest a greater proportion of rent income in housing and neighbourhood improvements.

Olwen Smith, a grandmother-of-seven, who has lived in Ecclestone Close for five years, was one of the first to see the improvements this week, and is delighted with her new windows and front door.

She said: 'It's brilliant. It's got to make a lot of difference come winter. It should reduce costs because before you put the heating on and it was going straight out of the windows.'

Sylvia Pratt, 74, a borough councillor for Magdalen ward, who also lives in one of the bungalows in Ecclestone Close, said: 'This has been a long time coming and we are really grateful the council has been able to deliver. These are homes where people can enjoy twilight years in comfort and peace.'

Great Yarmouth Community Housing – the council's housing department – said it replaced single-glazed windows in most of its 6,000 properties 'some years ago' but there was a gap in work until a three-year programme started in 2012/13 to upgrade the rest.

Following upgrades last year, predominantly to sheltered accommodation in the northern and southern parishes, including Caister and Martham, the council is now turning its attention to Bradwell.

Work in the village will continue until the end of September. The bungalows will get more secure front and back doors, new doors on stores, and new windows on homes where double-glazing has not been installed previously on an ad-hoc basis.

Phase one involves 135 homes on Leach Close, Ecclestone Close, Bunnewell Avenue, and Sheldonian Court, off Oriel Avenue, while phase two will upgrade 75 homes in Rambouillet Close and Seawake Close.

Cllr Penny Linden, cabinet member for communities, said: 'We are delighted we are able to deliver these improvements, which both residents and councillors have wanted for years.

'The double-glazing means homes will be better heat-insulated, driving down fuel costs for residents, but also quieter inside, creating a better living environment all-round.'

Next financial year, the council plans to install new windows and doors in any remaining general needs council homes which still have single-glazing.