THE VIEWS of young people on crime are being passed to officials in County Durham.

Politicians will join representatives from the police, health and arts professionals to see the culmination of a ground-breaking collaboration which has involved almost 300 children aged eight to 13 years, from three Chester-le-Street schools.

Pupils from the Hermitage School and Newker and Bullion Lane Primary schools took part in workshops to raise awareness of issues of crime and restorative justice.

More than 20 young people worked, in their spare time, to develop ideas generated by the workshop into a short film and theatre piece.

The film explores how young people feel about saying sorry for their actions while the play follows a young person and the issues they face, including bullying.

The project is collaboration between The Forge, the Arts in Education agency for County Durham, County Durham Youth Engagement Service and Durham County Council's Culture and Leisure service.

It has enabled the young people to use theatre and film to explore their ideas and opinions about crime and making amends to victims and communities.

The film will be taken into schools by the Youth Engagement Service as a starting point for further discussion and young people who took part in the initial workshops will also see it.