Families living on a neglected new housing estate are celebrating after being promised that a 'raft of work' will be carried out to improve the area.

People living at Queen's Hills in Costessey who have suffered from a host of problems on the estate are hoping that the work, which will be carried out by the estate's developers in the coming months, will make living there more pleasant.

The consortium of developers, which took over ownership of the site when original site owner Cofton went into administration, has promised to carry out a range of measures which they hope will help to placate angry residents ahead of the building of the proposed community centre, which has now been approved by South Norfolk District Council.

Residents have become fed up with the lack of progress in installing community facilities and by the traffic problems caused by the congested Longwater junction, as reported in yesterday's Evening News.

By the end of November, the consortium has promised to remove all the temporary speed humps, most of which have been vandalised and had sections removed, complete and connect all street lights, subject to county council approval, maintain grass verges, remove the earth bund across the emergency access road and replace it with a locked gate that can be opened if necessary, provide name plates for all roads and clean and unblock road gullies that are currently causing flooding.

A spokesman said that 'extensive jetting and de-silting' has been carried out by the consortium as part of the road adoption process, and the outcome of a report on this that has been sent to Anglian Water is expected imminently.

They are also pressing ahead with the road adoption, meaning the council could soon be able to maintain roads, and the next step of this process is the adoption of the sewers by Anglian Water.

Once Anglian Water has adopted the sewers, the main roads can be considered for adoption by the county council. Minor roads will be made ready for adoption by individual building companies.

Caroline Long, 37, who lives in Kestral Avenue on Queen's Hills with her husband and five children, said: 'It's nice to hear they're going to be doing something.

'Our road isn't too bad but there are a lot of roads and pavements on the estate which are in quite a bad state.'

A consortium spokesman added: 'We are working in partnership with the local authority to carry out a raft of work in public areas across the Queen's Hill development, much of which we are please to say will be completed next month.'