A VILLAGE clean-up has started to turn a stretch of wasteland into a play area.

Funding has been secured to develop recreational facilities on land separating Hall Avenue and Hunter Avenue in Ushaw Moor, near Durham.

The Groundwork Trust charity is overseeing the project, backed by grants from the Barclays SiteSavers regeneration programme.

Project officer Jason Martin said work should start next year to transform a site which has become a problem area.

He said: "It's an interesting site, because it was originally back-to-back council housing, but the council took away half of the gardens and left it as a green space about 20 years ago.

"But it has been used for fly-tipping, children have started bonfires there and there has been a bit of anti-social behaviour associated with it.

"The project is about getting the community working together. It began with a petition to get it tidied up and make something of it."

Mr Martin said that, when completed, it will include a picnic spot and an area where children can play ball games, but with fencing to prevent balls flying into gardens.

"It was decided there are other play areas in the village and so this is more for what you might call 'informal play'.

"It's really trying to make the space available for use by all without it being a source of conflict."

Mr Martin said that Saturday's community clean-up marked the start of the transformation, which should be completed by spring.

The site is one of the last to benefit from Barclays SiteSavers, which has run since 1996, but is being replaced by a new scheme, Spaces for Sport.