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Kingston Road and the surrounding streets in Stockton, where the second series of Benefits Street was filmed last year, have been undergoing a facelift. Scaffolding covers all the houses which are being painted bright white, and new porches are being fitted over the front doors. Hoards of workers with white vans are on every street completing the work. See Ross Parry copy RPYSTREET : It is setting for the new Benefits Street series which has had a complete renovation – after talks the council doesn’t want it to be RECOGNISED by fans of the show. Kingston Road in Stockton, Teeside, has had a new lease of life with builders moving in to give fresh licks of paint and new porches after it starred as the next location for the series, which chronicles life on Britain’s most downtrodden estates. But the show has faced fierce criticism since being aired in 2014 starring James Turner Street in Birmingham, with critics accusing producers of creating “poverty tourism” to entice viewers. Stockton-on-Tees council has spent thousands giving the road on the town’s Tilery Estate some TLC, as neighbours suspect fears of it being recognised and attracting the wrong king of tourism.