A TEAM of consultants is drawing up plans to regenerate the centre of a former mining town.

Derwentside District Council has appointed Durham firm RPS to conduct a town centre study in Stanley.

The brief includes preparing a redevelopment masterplan and designing environmental improvements to Front Street.

Mark Bainbridge, associate urban designer for RPS, said: "We want to develop imaginative but viable ways to create new opportunities for the local community in an area that has a distinct sense of local pride and is steeped in industrial heritage.

"This will involve careful commercial assessment coupled with urban design initiatives that respond to the town's distinct identity.

"Most importantly, we want to work with the people who have to live and work there."

The team will look at retail provision, traffic management and redeveloping the area to make it more attractive to high street names.

The study's first results are expected by mid-December.