A TOWN centre landmark that embodies a community's history is being restored.

Three local authorities are renovating Newton Aycliffe's "blue bridge".

The footpaths and cycleway that run under the bridge have been repaired by Durham County Council and safety railings will be erected.

A popular nature walkway over the bridge, and the steps up to it, have been restored by Sedgefield Borough Council, which also plans to re-plaster the underpass.

The bridge, which links Aycliffe Industrial Estate to houses on the opposite side of St Cuthbert's Way, has been repainted.

It was once such a vital link to the town that it is represented as a chevron on the town's coat of arms.

An inscription of how Newton Aycliffe emerged as a town is carved on the stone supports.

During the Second World War, an ordnance factory opened west of Aycliffe Village, which led to the creation of Aycliffe Industrial Estate, which by 1946 accommodated 60 firms employing 6,000 workers.

The workers and their families needed somewhere to live so, throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, the new town was built.

The bridge restoration work was led by Great Aycliffe Town Council, which owns the footbridge, after the district's Rotary Club, offered to help to improve it.

The borough and town councillor for the west ward, George Gray, said: "Preserving the bridge is key, I'm very pleased it is being done.

"It is a history lesson about the town, an important piece of memorabilia that constantly need replenishing.

"Schoolchildren need to be able to go down to the bridge and see the dates and names of people who built and opened the town.

"The walls were crumbling and it was starting to look shabby, so it was important for the whole town to smarten it up.

"Most visitors to the town will drive across the blue bridge so it has to give a tidy impression, it is a landmark and people use it to give directions."