RESIDENTS of three communities across Durham City are coming together to give their neighbourhoods a winter spruce-up.

Cassop-cum-Quarrington Parish Council, which is creating a BMX track on Parkhill Estate, held a clean-up event at Parkhill Recreational Field at the weekend.

On Saturday, attention will turn to Ushaw Moor, where Hall and Hunter Residents' Group, which is improving the recreational facilities on the field between their two streets, will hold a clean-up at Hall and Hunter Green.

Finally, early in the new year, Coxhoe Community Partnership, which hopes to develop a sensory garden in the grounds of the village's leisure centre, will hold a walk, talk and brash-clearing event at Coxhoe Local Nature Reserve. The three clean-up campaigns are part of the Barclays Sitesavers scheme, a regeneration project funded by the bank and managed by the Groundwork charity to improve local communities. Over the past eight years, the Sitesavers programme has helped complete more than 800 projects nationally the country, covering more than 350 hectares of land.

Jason Martin, project officer from Groundwork East Durham, said: " Lots of hard work is going into transforming the sites, and we want to keep it that way for the whole community to enjoy."

For further information, contact Groundwork East Durham on 0191-527 3333.