A PROJECT that turned the clock back 20 years to help improve the appearance of a market town is to be copied by other communities.

Two years ago, Durham County Council introduced the first of a new kind of lengthsmen - workers who look after the maintenance of specific lengths of road and public rights of way.

The job of lengthsman disappeared two decades ago as a result of spending cuts.

The first of the community highway workmen was former Blue Circle cement worker Kevin Graham, who took to the streets of Stanhope after the County Council struck up a partner- ship with the local parish council.

His appointment has been such a success that he has received a formal pat on the back from the parish on behalf of Weardale residents and other town and parish councils want to repeat his success.

Next week, members of the county's cabinet are to consider similar arrangements with Belmont, Brandon and Byshottles, Framwellgate Moor, Haswell and Peterlee town councils.

If the extension of the scheme is agreed, then a team of lengthsmen will take up their posts in the next couple of months.

They will be responsible for hedge and ditch maintenance, minor drainage works, sign cleaning and maintenance in their respective town and parish council areas.

The county council's local highways inspector and the parish clerks will agree a fortnightly programme of work and will also consider any requests for urgent work from people living in the area.

The county's cabinet member for highways and environment, Bob Pendlebury, said: "The new lengthsmen will be our eyes and ears on the streets, responsible for carrying out some works themselves, but in a position to report back to us other works which need doing. The end result should be better environmental standards on our roads and footpaths."

The cost of employing the workers will be about £25,000 a year, to which the county will contribute its current expenditure on routine maintenance and half of the remaining balance, and the partnership authorities will pay the rest.