Contractors, the Casey Group, are moving into the Harley Bank area to start work on the £4 million scheme run by Calderdale Council, in which 30 houses will be demolished and the remaining 68 homes renovated.

A community garden will be created, as well as smaller gardens, parking spaces and new road layouts.

The first phase, from week one to 13, will start when road closures have been secured for the ends of Bride Street and Broad Street.

In total four houses will be demolished in Bride Street and eight in Broad Street.

The work will be completed street by street through Harley Bank over the next 18-months to two years.

Richard Armitage, Calderdale Council housing projects manager, assured residents that everyone was working together to minimise the disruption.

"Because of the nature of the area we cannot bring in any heavy machinery, so it will be a case of demolishing these houses almost by hand.

"We are having weekly residents' meetings to maintain contact with everyone and we will be speaking to residents individually so they know exactly what is going on with their homes," said Mr Armitage.

Casey will have a site office, open to the public, in one of the empty houses in Boardman Street.

Harley Bank has a mixture of owner-occupier homes, Pennine Housing properties and houses owned by a number of private landlords.

Pennine tenants have been moved to alternative houses and work on their properties will be carried out internally, as well as externally, with new kitchens and bathrooms installed.

Energy efficiency measures, such as rain water collection and under floor heating, will be incorporated into some properties in the scheme if there is a high enough level of interest, said Mr Armitage.

Casey will not only conduct the work in Harley Bank but, as part of its community liaison work, will also work with the community in various ways.

Sarah Harwood, business development co-ordinator for Casey, has already visited a number of schools in the area to speak to children about the hazards of building sites.

The company will be looking to employ an apprentice for the scheme with a view to offering permanent employment.

Calderdale officers have encouraged residents to sign up to a group repair scheme, which will form part of the project.

"We're signing residents up for the early stages of the scheme," said Barbara Sands, the council's home improvement service manager.

The works will incorporate a number of different elements, such as roofing, guttering, repointing, rebuilding chimney stacks and sandblasting but exact details have yet to be worked out.

Mr Armitage said similar schemes had been operating in Halifax for a number of years and were very successful.

"Our aims are in common: we want to improve the area for benefit of the residents."