YOUNGSTERS are working with writers, poets and filmmakers on a series of creative tasks.

The children will see their projects turned into a publication, a performance, an exhibition, film screenings and a weekend of live radio programmes in the summer as part of the New Writing North scheme called Writing Westpark.

The scheme aims to capture the history of the Westpark site, at Faverdale, in Darlington, before houses, shops, a school, a rugby club and a park are built.

Inspiration will be drawn from the site's former Darchem works, which was once bordered by the Darlington to Barnard Castle railway line, and the nearby Cat Castle Quarry.

Children from Haughton Community, Branksome Comprehensive, Beaumont Hill schools and Mount Pleasant, Whinfield, and Alderman Leach primary schools are taking part.

Deputy headteacher at Haughton Community School, Sue Richardson, said: "Having met the professional artists and made their first site visit, our students are now very excited by the opportunity to have a creative input into the future of their town."

Local radio producer and documentary maker Caroline Beck said radio was a perfect medium for the scheme.

Other artists working with the children are Teesside poet Maureen Almond and Darlington-born filmmaker Richard Lawson.