A COMMUNITY youth group in County Durham has won an award which coincides with ambitious plans to expand its facilities.

Teesdale Community Resources (TCR), in Barnard Castle, this week triumphed over 100 entries to win the overall prize in the County Durham Youth Work that Works awards.

Six young people from Teesdale and volunteer youth worker Carolyn Cluer produced a handbook encouraging young people to plan and run youth club programmes. The book was also worked on by Graeme Bland, on work experience with TCR from Teesdale Comprehensive School.

The book, funded by a £12,000 Prince's Trust grant, proved so popular that it is now being distributed to youth groups across the county.

TCR has also announced £300,000 plans to move to purpose-built premises to improve the service.

The centre is used by about 100 young people a week, and offers facilities such as a music studio and video-production facilities.

Other competition winners: North Durham, young people at Stanley Youth Centre who produced a horror film called the Mad Monk; Easington area, a drama group at Peterlee Youth Centre which wrote and performed sketches on young people's issues; Sedgefield area, young people at Fishburn Youth and Community Centre who produced a Dear Daisy teen magazine; Durham area, an activity-based music, dance and arts projects called Nobody Like Us involving young disabled people. The trans-area winner was the Youth Aloud project which set up a website for young people.