MAJOR works of public art are planned for Stockton to celebrate its historic connections to the railway.

The move by the borough council has been announced following pressure from Bob Harbron, of the Norton Heritage group.

Mr Harbron said that a council promise to hold events for the 175th anniversary of the Stockton to Darlington Railway, in 2000, came to nothing.

He published a newsletter calling for a Victorian riverside station, with shops and cafe, to be built on the original quayside station of the world's first passenger railway.

Responding to Mr Harbron, the council revealed that works of art have been planned for the town.

Reuben Kench, the council's strategic arts advisor, said: "Stockton council is aware of the significance of our railway heritage - to be the town where railways were born is literally to have changed the world.

"Officers and regional heritage agencies have been exploring the most effective ways of paying tribute to this achievement.

"A railway heritage project officer has been appointed to look at opportunities to tell the story of our role in railways.

"In addition, as part of work on the South Stockton link road, part of which follows the original Stockton to Darlington trackbed, the council is planning a series of pieces of public art and interpretive features of a scale and quality that would do justice to Stephenson's legacy to the world."

Mr Harbron said he had decided to fight for greater acknowledgement of the town's railway heritage after reading about plans to build a £10m railway village museum in Shildon, County Durham, in The Northern Echo.

He said he was inspired by The Echo's comment demanding that the world's oldest passenger line be relaid.

Mr Harbron said: "There are five million rail buffs in the UK and it could really put Stockton on the map. I don't think even people in Stockton and Darlington really know the effect our towns had on the world.

"Well done to Shildon, but I don't see why Stockton can't do something similar."