A COUNCIL worker with a passion for the environment is turning other people’s rubbish into striking garden art.

Davey Gristwood, of Brookside Avenue, Crook, County Durham, collects rusty steel sheets, rotting old oil tanks and even old cooker hobs.

A few hours later, it is transformed to anything from a life-sized sunflower to intricate garden gates covered in vine leaves.

He said: “I like to think of what I do as a journey for something people attach little or no value to, turning into something that makes people say ‘wow’.

“I always call it a hobby that pays for itself. I’m not a business. I don’t advertise. It’s ‘mates rates’ that allow me to do something I love doing. It’ll never make me rich.”

Mr Gristwood’s is an operations manager for Countryside Works, part of Durham County Council, improving countryside access, bridle ways and paths.

The council’s head of direct services, Oliver Sherratt, said: “As a council, we are working hard to promote recycling. With his 6ft sunflowers, Davey has literally taken this to new heights, and shown us all just what you can do with discarded materials.”