Councillor H. Holden (left) and M. Jean Dacatti, at 15 Rutland Avenue, where work on installing new kitchen fittings is about to begin.
A highlight of the business side of the Vitry civic delegation's stay in Burnley was their visit to the corporation Housing Department's £125,000 home-improvement scheme on Palace House Estate on Tuesday the 29th September 1970. Work on the scheme, the first of its kind in Burnley, has now started and is expected to take three years. Tenants of the 96 houses involved are being moved out in batches at three month intervals. Councillor Harold Holden, vice-chairman of the Housing Committee, told the visitors that improvements to the houses would cost only a quarter of the sum required to build new ones.

The homes being improved were originally built in the 1920's and are structurally sound with adequate garden and play space. The drawbacks were that most lacked modern plumbing, drainage and bathroom facilities. Externally work will involve new drainage, water and gas mains and relaying of footpaths and internally new kitchens, bathrooms and re-wiring.

The Vitry visitors were impressed by what they saw. Mme Daniele Damiano, Vitry's director of housing said: "The scheme is extraordinary. We are most taken with the idea of the civic authority re-housing the tenants while improvements are carried out. Another interesting aspect is that some work is being undertaken by your Housing department. This would be very unusual in France."