TRANSLATION company ITL has won the contract to handle Durham County Council's language work.

The Gateshead business will provide information in a variety of languages, explaining the council services available and how they operate.

ITL, which was established in 1989, has six employees and can call on 150 interpreters.

Grace Tia Bon Bon, managing director, said: "This is a very exciting contract win for us and it means a major expansion of our business. We were pitching against some big, London-based firms, but we won it on quality, cost and delivery.

"It is much cheaper and more effective for councils to outsource this service, so we are optimistic of more account wins like this."

ITL offers translation and interpreting services in languages ranging from Arabic to Zulu. It also offers a rapid interpretation service by telephone. It has worked for clients ranging from Komatsu to the Northumbrian Police.

The Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 encourages local authorities to do more to make their services accessible to ethnic minorities.

A spokesman for Durham Country Council said: "Previously we used a number of different firms but that was not cost effective, so we invited tenders from a number of different companies and then did a post-tender exercise and ITL was the one that appeared to offer the better service."