COMMUNITY road workers are taking to the streets to smarten up County Durham's towns and villages.

It is a move that will see the return of the post of lengthsmen - council workers who have responsibility for general maintenance of specific lengths of roads and public rights of way - that disappeared as a result of successive spending cuts in the early 1980s.

Stanhope Parish Council joined forces with Durham County Council in June last year for a pilot scheme that saw the two authorities share an annual £20,000 cost to provide a community highways worker in Weardale.

It has been hailed as an overwhelming success and now the county council is writing to other parish and town councils to ask them to support the scheme.

A spokesman for the county council said: "This is a partnership between us and the parish council and it has certainly paid dividends.

"We are now keen to offer other parish councils the same sort of benefits involved here."

The new workers will be responsible for looking after minor repairs, hedge maintenance, sign cleaning, ditch clearing, minor drainage works and other routine maintenance.

Councillor Harry Irwin, chairman of Stanhope Parish Council, was full of praise for the scheme.

He said: "It has been worth the money because we have seen a significant difference and we have more of a say in what work needs to be done."

Dene Valley Parish Council is one of the councils that has been considering joining the scheme.

Its chairman, Councillor Chris Foote Wood, said: "It would mean we would have a say in what work is done and it would be done quicker.

"I think we need to look at how much it is going to cost but I do agree with the idea in principal."