Permission has been granted for 41 homes in Stevenage to be demolished, as part of wider plans to regenerate the area.

The homes at Hobbs Court were part of a sheltered housing scheme for older people, but Stevenage Borough Council said the buildings were "of a poor quality and design".

Last year, residents were rehoused to other schemes across Stevenage, with plans for Hobbs Court to be replaced with a similar scheme.

It forms part of wider plans for the regeneration of The Oval, with a planning application for 250 homes and commercial space submitted to the council last week.

A planning statement included with the application says: "The regeneration of The Oval is a longstanding ambition of the council.

"Many of the buildings and homes are reaching the end of their life and the cost of refurbishment to bring them up to modern environmental standards is no longer viable.

"Furthermore, refurbishment would not address many of the wider issues across the site which are attributable to its inward design and layout which creates pockets and areas of poor visibility and are associated locally with crime and anti-social behaviour."

Demolition of Hobbs Court is expected to begin next month and to last for around 10 weeks.

Work will be conducted between 8am to 5pm on weekdays and between 8am and 1pm on Saturdays, with noisy work limited to between 9am and 3pm each day.