MORE than 1,000 people in Darlington have taken advantage of a programme designed to make the countryside more accessible, a meeting will hear today.

A report to be presented to the town's environmental forum says that the borough council's countryside events programme, launched two years ago, should continue because it has been such a success.

The programme has included volunteer walks around the borough's wild spaces, including Drinkfield Marsh, Brinkburn Pond and Skerningham community woodland.

John Buxton, the council's director of development and environment, said the majority of people who had used the programme were those new to the town's wilder parts.

"The programme had an extremely wide appeal," he said. "It ranges from people looking to increase their knowledge of the moths that inhabit one of our nature reserves, through to people taking their young children out to hunt Easter eggs in the wilds of the Whinnies, the Local Nature Reserve just outside Middleton St George."

He said the future of the programme looked promising, adding: "It is important that we keep the momentum going as people begin to gain confidence in allowing themselves to venture further into Darlington's more wild and diverse countryside."