A MARKET event is promising everything the environmentally-aware shopper could want in their daily life – and death.

A Green Market is to take place in Darlington later this month and, in what is believed to be the country’s first, among the stalls will be one selling environmentally friendly coffins.

The stall is being run by John Whitehouse, of Whitehouse Funeral Service in Darlington, to promote alternative methods of burial.

The Green Market is the first to be held in Darlington and takes place on Saturday.

It will run alongside the new Darlington It’s Growing (Dig) local food initiative, which is being launched this week.

Allan Draper, market stallholder and president-elect of the National Market Traders’ Federation (NMTF), said the unusual stall would be the first of its kind in the country.

He said: “I asked lots of people (at the federation) if they’d heard of anything like this and this is a total first.

“There’s never been one like it in all of the UK.

“I asked a few people if they would be offended if they came across a stall full of coffins but not one single person said so, we’ve had a very positive response.”

The Green Market, which takes place in Darlington town centre, will be opened at 10am by Darlington MP Jenny Chapman.

Others stalls on offer include a composting stall, biking, Maidendale Nature Reserve, the Energy Trust, Friends of the Earth, Durham Wildlife Trust and a plant stall.

The event has been sponsored by Banks Renewables, which allows the stallholders to set up for free.

Mr Whitehouse said he was getting more and more requests for environmentallyfriendly coffins.

He said: “It’s nothing out of the ordinary anymore.

“We’ve got a new line of fleece covered coffins.

“It’s a cardboard frame with fleece on the outside.

“The fleece is from Swaledale so it hasn’t travelled far at all and is very environmentally- friendly.

“Everybody thinks it’s going to be weak but it’s very strong.

“We’re not expecting someone to come along and buy one on the day but we wanted to make people aware of what we have.

“When we heard of this market, we thought it would be good to do this.”