A huge Island-wide programme of replacing kitchen units in local authority houses is underway.

It's being arranged through the Department of Social Care and the first Douglas phase will involve homes on the Anagh Coar estate.

That work, involving around 50 homes, will cost about ?500,000 and further phases will follow, in the capital and elsewhere on the Island.

Chairman of Douglas Council's Public Health and Housing Committee, Carol Malarkey, says she and her colleagues were initially against such large sums being spent in the current economic climate, but understands why the department wants the work to be done:

It's understood anybody whose local authority home is more than 15 years old will be eligible to apply to be included in the programme.