The green house effect

For thanks to a lick of garish mint-green paint, their previously dull and inconspicuous homes are now plainly visible for many miles across the County Durham countryside.

Some are joking that - just like the great Wall of China - their dwellings might now be visible from space.

And while that may be stretching things somewhat, they are certainly visible from Kirk Merrington, about nine-and-a-half miles away.

Three weeks ago, the Manor Grove homes were resplendent in a depressing shade of battleship grey.

Then Teesdale Housing Association, which owns the properties, decided to brighten things up a little - painting the rendered walls in two tones of mint green paint.

Contractors tried four testers on one of the walls, opting for the two shades of green rather than a sand and cream combination.

While all the tenants agree the previous colour was rather depressing, they say the new shades are now too bright.

Diane Bright, a resident of one of the newly-painted houses said: "If you go all the way to Kirk Merrington and look across, you can see the houses. They are disgusting. Why they chose this colour, I don't know. They probably glow in the dark."

Another resident of Manor Grove, Glyn Heaviside, said: "It's a bit extreme to say the least - and the quality of the workmanship could be much better.

"The choice of colour is beyond the pail, but I suppose the good thing is that we live inside it, so we don't actually have to look out of our window at it."

Ian Elliott, contracts manager with Teesdale Housing Association said: "We try to find a colour that is durable and not too dark or dingy.

"We've got houses all over the area which are the sandy colours, so we thought in Cockfield we would paint it in a colour that would give Manor Grove an identity.

"I personally think it blends in with the countryside at the rear of the properties.

"I admit that it maybe is a bit brighter than it was on the swatches we put up on the wall to test it."

Mr Elliott said that the housing association probably wouldn't be using the colour on any other of their properties in Teesdale.

Many of the residents are also angry at the poor job done by the painters. Paint was splattered all over steps and walls and on some doors a stain was applied on top of an existing gloss coat of paint, meaning that the doors are still tacky now.

"Any tenants who want to talk to us about their house are welcome to, we would always be very interested to get some feedback about what people think," said Mr Elliott.

"If there was a consensus among the people that they weren't happy with the colour, then we would look at repainting the houses.

"But of course, there are cost implications, so it wouldn't be something that we would be looking at doing straight away.