WORK to breathe new life into Dorchester's historic Borough Gardens is set to start in the new year.

Dorchester Town Council was celebrating in the summer after being awarded almost £1 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the work.

Now after weeks of wrangling with lottery chiefs the town council has revealed that work on the facelift, which is hoped will restore the park to its Victorian heyday, will start in January.

A series of behind-closed-doors meetings have been held to discuss who to appoint to carry out the work and a meeting of the town council's management committee will hear on Tuesday that contractors have now been appointed.

Details of when the work will start on the gardens are revealed in the minutes of a meeting of the Borough Gardens panel, which will be considered by members of the management committee.

The committee will hear that work will start in January and everything should be completed by December 2007.

The minutes reveal that one of the first parts of the works to be completed will be the refurbishment of the garden's fountain at a cost of £84,920.

However the replacement of the gardens' perimeter railings has been delayed because a suitable contractor has yet to be found to carry out the work.

Members of the committee are being asked to support the appointment of contractor for the refurbishment of the fountain and to seek a new contractor for the fence.

As well as restoring the fountain and reinstating the fence other work planned for the green lung includes creating a new children's play area and a new refreshment kiosk.

The Borough Gardens House will also be restored and a new outside entertainment space will be created.

Dennis Holmes, Dorchester town clerk, said the refurbishment was expected to cost £1.6 million in total, £1.3 million of which was made up of the lottery grant and town council funding.Other contributions have come from various sources, such as the old hospital site property developers.