WORK has started on an additional building at a Middlesbrough visitor attraction.

It is being built at Nature's World thanks to an award of £250,000 of funding and has a working title of the Earthship Project.

The project will convey the story of re-use and recycling. The building will have a number of recycled features including the materials used in its foundations, a turf roof and walls incorporating more than 1,000 used car tyres.

It will also house a shop and space for arts and crafts people to work and sell their products.

The nature of the project has helped to attract funding from the Government's Landfill Tax scheme, the National Lottery and European sources.

Nature's World chief executive Stuart Goldie said: "We want to be on the map as a national tourist attraction and projects like this will help us to achieve that. My team works very hard to substantially increase the number of visitors to Nature's World, a real challenge when you take into account the fact that Middlesbrough isn't a natural tourist destination.

"The Earthship Project will showcase just some of the many things that can be achieved by re-using or recycling materials and act as an educational tool for everybody to learn about how we can protect the environment by being more innovative in how we use such materials."