PEOPLE living in a town preparing for the launch of a £10m visitor attraction have launched a plea to rescue their blighted neighbourhood.

About 60,000 visitors a year are expected to visit Shildon when Locomotion: The National Railway Museum opens.

But people living in the Bouch Street, Adamson Street and All Saints Road areas of New Shildon say tourists will be put off by the sight of back streets strewn with rubbish.

They say many houses have had windows smashed and boarded up in an area that is only yards away from where the museum's main car park is planned.

They blamed some private landlords for renting properties to inappropriate tenants.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said: "They are letting the houses out to people who cannot even get a council house anymore.

"These private landlords are not vetting who they put in their houses."

The police and Sedgefield Borough Council acknow-ledge that the area is becoming a huge problem for anti- social behaviour and fly- tipping.

Alan Suggett, the council's head of environmental services, said his workers had cleared three quarters of a tonne of rubbish from the back streets this week.

He said: "This is a social problem that we are having all over the borough, not just in Shildon, and we are doing what we can to deal with it.

"As soon as we collect the rubbish more is dumped there. This is a small minority that are ruining the area for the decent residents."

He said investigations were under way to find out who was dumping the rubbish and fixed penalties would be enforced.

Sergeant Steve Ball, of Shildon police, said: "We are doing our best to police the area, but what is really needed is for the council and the police to work together with private landlords to come up with a long-term solution.''

There is not an official private landlords' association in Shildon. But one local landlord, who asked not to be named, said: "All my tenants have to comply with a tenancy agreement which is looked at every six months, and there are some really nice people living in my houses.

"I quite happily work in partnership with the police and the council.''