LOCAL people have given their community centre a colourful makeover.

They worked with professional artists Stuart Flude and Emma Beattie to produce two pieces of artwork that are now on permanent display in the Phoenix Centre at Moorside Community Technology College, Consett.

The project, which has been running for two years, is organised and funded by Durham County Council's Education in the Community service and is also supported by the Youth Service and Extended Schools section.

People aged between four and 70 created an intricate mosaic picture of a phoenix and a brightly-coloured stained glass window, which shows a local landmark, the Gill Bridge.

Brenda Beveridge, a development worker in the Education in the Community service, said: "This has been a really successful project which has involved some of the older people who use the centre, as well as pupils from the school and other young people.

"The mosaic project last year was really popular and people were keen to do something else this year so we came up with the idea of making a stained glass window."