Two County Durham companies have come to the rescue of the endangered water vole.

Wapping Burn, one of the remaining sites for voles in the North-East, flows through industrial sites between Peterlee and Shotton Colliery.

NSK Bearings, based on the South West Industrial Estate, in Peterlee, and npower, with offices at nearby Bracken Hill Industrial Estate in Shotton Colliery, have both taken part in Durham Wildlife Trust's From Coals to Voles Project.

The project is aimed at halting the 93 per cent decline in vole numbers seen in recent years.

NSK has carried out changes to the landscaping of its grounds, thinning some areas of tree cover to allow vegetation to flourish along the edges of Wapping Burn.

Npower employees are to take part in a team challenge to remove scrub from the side of the burn to improve the voles' habitat.

Representatives from both companies will be present at the official launch of an interpretation panel giving information on the vole and suggesting some methods of protecting the creature before it becomes extinct in the North-East.

The panel will be unveiled next Wednesday at noon, by the footbridge over the Wapping Burn, to the North of the NSK site at Brindley Road.